Who is xorpus and why does xorpus flood Covenant Blogs with Nike ads?

Just wondering.

Why Protestants are Musicians and Catholics are Architects

Donn Johnson has a fascinating post entitled "Shrine?" prompted by his reflections while on vacation in France. Here is my response:

Amen. The Orthodox understand this shift of time and space and foster it via liturgy and iconostasis. Catholics do it through liturgy, eucharist and (supremely!) their philosophy, art and architecture.

What is fascinating to me is that fact that these traditions are not nominalist in their theological presuppositions. This means that participation of particulars in universals is part and parcel of their life and worship. IMO they are better able to be authentically trinitarian as a result. You might say that the centrifugal ("particular," "different") and centripital ("universal," "unity") forces are balanced.

We Protestants, however, were born Nominalists and have been struggling ever since. We are not characterized by "participation," but by division. Centrifugal forces outweigh centripetal ones.

Incarnation therefore becomes difficult for us, and we are constantly tempted to fly off, either to a gnosticism which holds the spiritual as more "real" than the material, or to a social gospel which holds the material to be more real than the spiritual. Either way, "shrine" becomes unnecessary or even pernicious.

It is no accident that Protestantism tends to produce musicians more than artists or architects!

The Importance of Godly Analysis: making distinctions to preserve real unity

Scot McKnight has a post discussing whether "emerging" should be distinguished from "emergent." In it, he refers to an article in the June, 2008 issue of Missional Journal, by David Dunbar of Biblical Seminary.

Dunbar writes,

In the previous Missional Journal I began sorting though some of the distinctions between the missional, emerging, and emergent groups. While these categories are not sharp-edged, they definitely have different flavors. In this article I will try to tease apart emerging and emergent.

Some would question whether this distinction is even appropriate. Tony Jones, national coordinator of Emergent Village, has recently blogged his objection:

“. . . people are making a huge mistake, methinks, because they are perpetuating the very modern mistake of separation and fragmentation. . . . Drawing lines and defending borders never ends well for the line-drawers because before you know it, someone has drawn a line right behind your heels and, guess what, you’re suddenly on the other side of the line with me.” Well, yes, but map-makers do draw lines and not always with sinister intent. The question is whether there are discernible differences; I believe there are.

I agree with Dunbar. Satan is always happy whenever we "miss the mark," that mean between extremes of excess or deficiency.
Elsewhere, I have written about those my friend Carrie has labeled "water samplers," people who stand on the edge of the Water of Life and refuse to drink it, or dive in, but instead are content merely to analyze it. That is one extreme. And yes, sadly it is all too often the case that analyzers tend to be pharasaical.

But it seems to me that Tony Jones represents another extreme: the refusal to engage in the authentically human activity of analysis, period. He perpetuates the very postmodern mistake of conflating discernment with judgementalism. There's a baby out there crying because she got thrown out with the bathwater. If modernism emphasized "distinguer," postmodernism emphasizes its opposite, "unir"

Dunbar does us a service to point out that not all distinctions are made out of sinister, ulterior motives. Wisdom, understanding, and life pleasing to the Lord depend upon our ability to analyze arguments and situations, in order to make distinctions. Otherwise, what do we do with the following scriptures? Conveniently ignore them? Sweep them under a postmodern rug of artificial unity? Consign them to a premodern worldview that is passe?

Leviticus 10:10

You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean

1 Kings 3:9

[Solomon's prayer] So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?"

Proverbs 3:20-22

My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment, do not let them out of your sight; they will be life for you, an ornament to grace your neck.

Proverbs 10:13

Wisdom is found on the lips of the discerning, but a rod is for the back of him who lacks judgment.

Judges 24:15

But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

Ezekiel 22:26

Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean; and they shut their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.

Philippians 1:9-11

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

1 Cor. 2:11-13

For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words

1 Cor. 12:9-11

...to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.

Hebrews 5:13-14

Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

The "Ex" Knife Holder

Seen at a shop in Seattle:

THE "EX"

A radical alternative to the typical block o' wood!
No knife holder has taken a greater stab at the theatrical than this specially designed Ex knife holder. Et tu, Brute?

This 5pc knife holder is unlike any cutlery set you have ever seen! This whimsical, artistic kitchen accessory holds 5 high quality stainless steel kitchen knives (included) in a rather unorthodox fashion - STORE YOUR KNIVES IN AN ANONYMOUS EFFIGY DEDICATED TO WHOMEVER YOU PLEASE! Take out your frustrations as you store your knives!

Makes a perfect gift and a guaranteed conversation piece!

Plastic casings house every knife to prevent blade exposure.

Features Include:

Unique Artistic Holder made of Heavy Duty ABS Plastic
This display will be the talk of the party
Innovative Knife Suspension System
Individual Protective Knife Sleeves
Heavy Gauge Durable Stainless Steel Blades and Hollow Handles
Razor Sharp Precision Cutting Blades
25 Year Warranty
Set includes plastic figure plus:
1 - 8" Chef Knife
1 - 8" Bread Knife
1 - 8" Carver
1 - 5" Utility Knife
1 - 3.5" Parer

Unfortunately, I know someone who might use one of these.

Back From Seattle: Susan's SPU Graduation

From the SPU News:

The SPU Class of 2008 graduates on Saturday, June 7. A total of 1,127 students will receive bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees, each poised to use their gifts and energies to engage the culture and change the world in a host of ways.

Here is just a sampling of the things new SPU graduates will be doing:

• Designing a sustainable electrical energy source for rural African villages.
• Interning with the Arab League in Cairo. (Alissa Walters, Gary's daughter!)
• Developing technology at a NATO undersea research center in Italy.
• Working as an investment financial analyst in New York City.
• Assisting Sudanese refugees in the Middle East.
• Caring for veterans as a surgical intensive care nurse.
• Earning a Ph.D. in molecular biosciences.
• Interning at an interior design firm.
• Providing transitional housing for homeless Seattle families.
• Serving as an air force officer.
• Writing firmware and software for mini-computers.
• Entering a pre-veterinary studies program.
• Teaching English in France.
• Working as a translator in Mexico.

And one graduate is going on to the University of Toronto, to continue her studies in classics.

Here is our daughter Susan on the right, with a friend on the porch of her apartment. She's wearing all her "academic bling," as she calls it. The red stoles signify they are in the Honors program; the three cords signify "summa cum laude," and the medal on white ribbon signifies they are members of Mortarboard.



Here's Joanna, with flowers from Pike's Place for her big sister.

Proud Papa.





The white and
maroon ribbon is the SPU President's Award. Each year it is given to one undergraduate and one graduate student for academic excellence and for embodying the ideals and values of Seattle Pacific University. None of us knew she was receiving it until we opened our programs! She was called up to the platform, and her smiling face was broadcast on both the jumbo screens of Qwest Field.



Proud Mamma.




Celebration dinner at Costa's Opa in Fremont, with Aunt Helen and Uncle Randy! Saganaki, horiatiki salad, avgolemeno soup, souvlaki, domades,kota lemonati, moussaka, spanikopita, galaktoboureko, bakalava---what else would you give a classics/linguistics major upon her graduation?

QUOTES: On Pluralism and Exclusivity

Paul Halupa shared this Sunday in our Veritas class on Christian community:

The Christian is at once the narrowest and the broadest of men. He becomes a man of one Book and one Person. And yet "all things are yours." So he breaks all bonds and barriers. He is a man of one Book, and of all books; of one Faith, and then or all fiaths; of one Person, and then of all persons; of one Interest, and then of all interests; of one Kingdom and then of all kingdoms.

One compass point is on Christ and the other sweeps the horizon. To sweep the horizon without having a point on Christ turns out to be Theosophy. to hold one point on Christ without sweeping the horizon turns out to be narrow conservatism. To have both a single pointedness and an all-inclusiveness is to be a Christian. If you belong to Christ, then all things are yours-- you are at once tha narrowest and the broadest man in the world.

--E. Stanley Jones, Victorious Living