I was driving to see a member of our congregation last evening, and there it was hanging out over Old Battleground Road just north of Lake Brandt, that tree, that tree with the purple flowers I had seen last week along I-40 in Forsyth County and down near Chapel Hill. I had only been able to describe it in passing as I drove by on the interstate.
Anyway, this morning on the way to work I drove over to the corner of Lake Brandt and Old Battleground, parked my car in that gravel space by the Greenway, and walked down to check out the tree. The first thing I noticed was that I was wrong about the fruit. It was definitely NOT a legume. The hanging fruit clusters left from last season were nut-like shells, like partially opened pecans.
Secondly, on first glance, it really looked like a Catalpa. A week had gone by since I noticed the trees last time, and so the leaves were more developed, big heart shaped leaves. And the flower clusters seemed totally Catalpa-ish, except that they weren’t the right color exactly (though they did have a very Catalpa-ish yellow stripe inside the flower cup), and the petal cups weren’t exactly the right shape.
The bark on the tree that I looked at was grey and fairly smooth, and the tree was twenty five or so feet high, but was having to do some major leaning out over the road to compete for sun against all the other trees crowded against it.
I was stumped, so I grabbed a few fallen flowers and immature nuts off the ground and when I got to the office I got out my tree books.
I think our mystery tree is the “princess-tree,” Paulownia tomentosa, or some variety of it. Apparently it is an “invasive species.”
The National Park Service says of the tree on its web site, in its section on “alien plants,” the following:
"Princess tree was introduced into the U.S. as an ornamental and landscape tree around 1840. It was first imported to Europe in the 1830's by the Dutch East India Company and brought to North America a few years later. This tree has since become naturalized in the eastern U.S. and is also grown on the west coast. Princess tree is native to western and central China where historical records describe its medicinal, ornamental, and timber uses as early as the third century B.C. It was cultivated centuries ago in Japan where it is valued in many traditions. Recently it has also been grown in plantations and harvested for export to Japan where its wood is highly valued."
From answers.com I found out that the genus, Paulownia, "was named after Princess Anna Paulovna (1795–1865), Russian princess and queen of William II of the Netherlands. "
Well, about every body seems to think this oriental tree is an environmental pest, and I won’t argue with the experts. It still makes for a lovely site along a drab interstate on a mid Spring drive.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Monday, April 24, 2006
I Think It Is Worse
JW does not think it is as bad as I make it out to be.
I think it is worse.
I think decent people can be caught up in things that are twisted. I see it in extended families all the time. Try as they might, they cannot extricate themselves from their role and from the twistedness while they’re in the system. Step out of the system, and they are different people it seems.
What I described in Leadership Woes is something many people I know have observed and talked about for the 17 years I have been here. I would notice things and ask, “so what is with Greensboro’s leadership” and they would say, “I don’t know, some weird karma, something in the water, some old curse, something, I don’t know.” So, it’s not really about the personalities of the moment to me. They are just the moment’s expression of “whatever it is.”
My theory is that it has something to do with the history of the city, the combination of Quakerism, Scots-Irish Revolutionary fervor, slavery and reconstruction, and the semi-feudalism of the textile industry. But I don’t know. In the evangelical Protestant Church there is almost a total incapacity to attain even a semblance of cooperation and unity of purpose here. That is different than in many southern cities. But so is the constant soap operatic state of our County Commissioners, City Council, and so on.
It’s not that good people aren’t involved in the system. It’s that there is something about the system that seems to work against these good people achieving what they should be able to achieve.
It’s embarrassing, but that’s not really the point. So, for me, after all these years, I’ve concluded it’s bigger then us, more than we can fix by our cleverness and wit and work and wonkish plans. Somehow there will have to be a wave of humility, repentance, love, sorrow, friendship, trust. Somehow our tribalism and pride and greed will have to be crushed.
So, JW, I so wish you are right. I want to trust that you are. I think you are wiser than me. But from where I sit right now I am not there yet.
To me the whole is so far less than the sum of its parts that there is something bigger than us holding us back and keeping us down. The only thing I know to do when facing that is to pray to one that is bigger than that. I just don’t have much confidence in us.
But I’d love to know how your roses are doing JW.
I think it is worse.
I think decent people can be caught up in things that are twisted. I see it in extended families all the time. Try as they might, they cannot extricate themselves from their role and from the twistedness while they’re in the system. Step out of the system, and they are different people it seems.
What I described in Leadership Woes is something many people I know have observed and talked about for the 17 years I have been here. I would notice things and ask, “so what is with Greensboro’s leadership” and they would say, “I don’t know, some weird karma, something in the water, some old curse, something, I don’t know.” So, it’s not really about the personalities of the moment to me. They are just the moment’s expression of “whatever it is.”
My theory is that it has something to do with the history of the city, the combination of Quakerism, Scots-Irish Revolutionary fervor, slavery and reconstruction, and the semi-feudalism of the textile industry. But I don’t know. In the evangelical Protestant Church there is almost a total incapacity to attain even a semblance of cooperation and unity of purpose here. That is different than in many southern cities. But so is the constant soap operatic state of our County Commissioners, City Council, and so on.
It’s not that good people aren’t involved in the system. It’s that there is something about the system that seems to work against these good people achieving what they should be able to achieve.
It’s embarrassing, but that’s not really the point. So, for me, after all these years, I’ve concluded it’s bigger then us, more than we can fix by our cleverness and wit and work and wonkish plans. Somehow there will have to be a wave of humility, repentance, love, sorrow, friendship, trust. Somehow our tribalism and pride and greed will have to be crushed.
So, JW, I so wish you are right. I want to trust that you are. I think you are wiser than me. But from where I sit right now I am not there yet.
To me the whole is so far less than the sum of its parts that there is something bigger than us holding us back and keeping us down. The only thing I know to do when facing that is to pray to one that is bigger than that. I just don’t have much confidence in us.
But I’d love to know how your roses are doing JW.
Leadership Woes, Or, Down to the River to Pray
This is one of those posts where a reader can say to me, “if you can’t say nothin’ good don’t say nothin’ at all.” Well, so be it.
I’ve had one phone conversation, one e-mail conversation, and read one blog this weekend that has caused me to reflect on a long standing observation: there is something twisted, corrupt, and sick when it comes to leadership in Greensboro and Guilford County.
It didn’t take long after moving here in 1989 to notice this. It was, well, pretty obvious from reading the paper and watching the news. I didn’t realize that it even extended to leadership in many churches, this desire to circle the wagons and protect and keep truth from the light of day.
The sickness seems to involve an incapacity to accept responsibility; a lack of will to hold leaders accountable; and an almost conspiratorial refusal to bring truth before the light of day. Adding to this malaise and madness is the hyper partisanship of local papers and too many local bloggers who seem almost incapable of acknowledging the good in their political opponents and the faults in their political friends.
No, I don’t mean everybody, no I am not going to say who I mean and don’t mean, and no, I am not going to cite sources….
Despite it all, many good things in our city seem to happen due, ironically to me, to that special interest group I most love to hate – developers! I laugh.
There is a deep human yearning for justice, for things to be right. It is right for people to be angry and upset when human beings are mistreated. I know that we can’t beg off these issues.
But one is left thinking that something greater is needed. That Someone greater is needed. We seem almost, as it were, under bondage to something we cannot defeat. No, I don’t necessarily mean the devil. I don’t really know what I mean. Maybe it is bondage to generations of ill will, bad blood, evil practices. It’s been going on a long time here. Maybe something unique to our history is behind this – something not shared with other similar southern cities of similar size. I really don’t know.
But what I do know is that while many good people in the trenches fight the good fight, vainly perhaps I don’t know, many of us perhaps should re-devote ourselves to praying for our city. And though I am a Christian I would call people of all faiths to pray for our city.
Meantime, I hope Chewie will share about the animals in Battleground Park, and I hope there is a place for writing about things that don’t relate to these issues that seem never to resolve.
Because life goes on. We still work and garden and go to movies and listen to music and make love and dance and watch birds and see plays and do art and play with children and walk our dogs and cook (slowly) and pray and worship and fix our cars and another hundred things.
And we still need (whatever governmental polices we support), as individuals and groups of twos and threes and tens to help the homeless and reach out to the widow and fatherless and stand up for the helpless and reach across the line of race and creed and socio/economic class to love our neighbor as ourselves. We still need to work in the small places where we live to make our little corners of the world as beautiful and as good and as right as they can be. I hope there is still a place for that stuff in the blogging world too.
And meanwhile, facing the childish and brutish and covetous dysfunction of our local leadership and of the local “powers that be,” and overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness, I hope that many – alone, in groups of two, or three, or maybe even more, will be called to quiet places, places where they can settle their anxious hearts, take in the beauty that remains, and go to work, praying that is, for our city. It needs our help. It needs more than our help.
I’ve had one phone conversation, one e-mail conversation, and read one blog this weekend that has caused me to reflect on a long standing observation: there is something twisted, corrupt, and sick when it comes to leadership in Greensboro and Guilford County.
It didn’t take long after moving here in 1989 to notice this. It was, well, pretty obvious from reading the paper and watching the news. I didn’t realize that it even extended to leadership in many churches, this desire to circle the wagons and protect and keep truth from the light of day.
The sickness seems to involve an incapacity to accept responsibility; a lack of will to hold leaders accountable; and an almost conspiratorial refusal to bring truth before the light of day. Adding to this malaise and madness is the hyper partisanship of local papers and too many local bloggers who seem almost incapable of acknowledging the good in their political opponents and the faults in their political friends.
No, I don’t mean everybody, no I am not going to say who I mean and don’t mean, and no, I am not going to cite sources….
Despite it all, many good things in our city seem to happen due, ironically to me, to that special interest group I most love to hate – developers! I laugh.
There is a deep human yearning for justice, for things to be right. It is right for people to be angry and upset when human beings are mistreated. I know that we can’t beg off these issues.
But one is left thinking that something greater is needed. That Someone greater is needed. We seem almost, as it were, under bondage to something we cannot defeat. No, I don’t necessarily mean the devil. I don’t really know what I mean. Maybe it is bondage to generations of ill will, bad blood, evil practices. It’s been going on a long time here. Maybe something unique to our history is behind this – something not shared with other similar southern cities of similar size. I really don’t know.
But what I do know is that while many good people in the trenches fight the good fight, vainly perhaps I don’t know, many of us perhaps should re-devote ourselves to praying for our city. And though I am a Christian I would call people of all faiths to pray for our city.
Meantime, I hope Chewie will share about the animals in Battleground Park, and I hope there is a place for writing about things that don’t relate to these issues that seem never to resolve.
Because life goes on. We still work and garden and go to movies and listen to music and make love and dance and watch birds and see plays and do art and play with children and walk our dogs and cook (slowly) and pray and worship and fix our cars and another hundred things.
And we still need (whatever governmental polices we support), as individuals and groups of twos and threes and tens to help the homeless and reach out to the widow and fatherless and stand up for the helpless and reach across the line of race and creed and socio/economic class to love our neighbor as ourselves. We still need to work in the small places where we live to make our little corners of the world as beautiful and as good and as right as they can be. I hope there is still a place for that stuff in the blogging world too.
And meanwhile, facing the childish and brutish and covetous dysfunction of our local leadership and of the local “powers that be,” and overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness, I hope that many – alone, in groups of two, or three, or maybe even more, will be called to quiet places, places where they can settle their anxious hearts, take in the beauty that remains, and go to work, praying that is, for our city. It needs our help. It needs more than our help.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Does Anybody Really Know What Tree It Is (Does Anybody Really Care)
OK, so I was driving to Winston Salem and back on new I-40 yesterday and over the space of a few miles on either side of the Guilford/Forsyth County line were these small trees with very bright clusters of what seemed to be upright purple flowers. They were really quite eye popping. I was only able to glance at them as I drove by at 65 miles an hour, but I seemed to be able to discern, 1) that they were legumes – seems there were drooping seed pods hanging from last year, 2) that they were stout little buggers, 3) that they were maybe ten to twenty feet high max, 4) that the flower clusters were upright and not drooping (seemed that way from a distance), and 5) that the flowers were very bright purple, really quite stunningly pretty. I thought maybe wisteria at first but the stoutness of the stems and the uprightness of the clusters seemed to rule that out. Then I thought of black or honey locust, but I’ve never known of a purple locust – is there one? And locust clusters droop. These flowers looked more upright, like catalpa. But I’ve never heard of purple catalpa. So, I’m stumped. Any of you botanists or gardeners out there have a clue what these really delightful purple blooming trees might be?
Joel
Monday, April 17, 2006
Simply Christian
Every age and generation has its own quirks and challenges, its own nuance and personality. For those folks who are Christians today, speaking to and about Christianity to others, well, the world has changed a lot since twenty or thirty years ago. We’ve all moved together along this odd continuum from modernity to post modernity, and even if we don’t really know what that means, it effects how we think and feel and look at the world, and at truth, and at religion.
The American “evangelical” response to all this over the last couple of decades has not endeared many people to Christianity. Indeed, it has turned many away. The attempts to “reach” non Christians have gotten kookier and kookier by the day. But the gimmicks sell to just enough people to keep the trade going.
With the collapse of the assumptions of enlightenment materialism, "spirituality” has broken out all over. Not, mind you, Christian spirituality, but many other forms of spirituality. And though some of it is down right ugly (like the kind that would have you fly planes into buildings), there seems to be a growing and nagging sense that there is more to life than our modern technological materialist rationalistic narcissistic culture suggests.
For all of you lapsed Christians, remotely interested Christians, seekers who might consider Christianity, or anyone with spiritual yearnings but with no framework upon which to hang your hats, I want to recommend a book to you.
The book is called Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense by N. T. Wright.
It is not so much an argument as a description of what Christianity, at its core, is all about, and how that may resonate with your own longings and searchings.
N. T. Wright is not an American. He is British. He does not serve in an American church. He is Anglican. He is not really of the same stuff as what people tend to think of when they think of “evangelicals.”
More than almost any other present day theologian sympathetic to the canonical writings, he tries very hard to hear and open up the message of those writings in their own historical context, and from there to suggest how that message speaks to us today.
He might be the most important Christian writer of our era, and I can promise you, even if you don’t ultimately buy what he is saying, you will understand Christianity better -- simple, basic, real Christianity anyway.
He is also contemporary. The book is copyrighted 2006. That means he is writing post Nag Hammadi, post Gospel of Thomas, post Da Vinci Code etc. And Wright is an historian as much as a theologian. So, given these two facts, it’s not like the reader can say, “well, this is an old book and he just couldn’t have known what we were going to discover in those caves in 1946 and after.”
Wright as a man, a pastor, and a minister, is in tune with the deepest longings and aspirations of the human heart. He is culturally astute enough to see how these aspirations and longings work their way out in life and culture. There is a pastoral gentleness to his writing. It is welcoming and loving. There is a not a hard edge in the book.
I commend Simply Christian to you. I hope you will give it a read.
Peace. Joel.
The American “evangelical” response to all this over the last couple of decades has not endeared many people to Christianity. Indeed, it has turned many away. The attempts to “reach” non Christians have gotten kookier and kookier by the day. But the gimmicks sell to just enough people to keep the trade going.
With the collapse of the assumptions of enlightenment materialism, "spirituality” has broken out all over. Not, mind you, Christian spirituality, but many other forms of spirituality. And though some of it is down right ugly (like the kind that would have you fly planes into buildings), there seems to be a growing and nagging sense that there is more to life than our modern technological materialist rationalistic narcissistic culture suggests.
For all of you lapsed Christians, remotely interested Christians, seekers who might consider Christianity, or anyone with spiritual yearnings but with no framework upon which to hang your hats, I want to recommend a book to you.
The book is called Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense by N. T. Wright.
It is not so much an argument as a description of what Christianity, at its core, is all about, and how that may resonate with your own longings and searchings.
N. T. Wright is not an American. He is British. He does not serve in an American church. He is Anglican. He is not really of the same stuff as what people tend to think of when they think of “evangelicals.”
More than almost any other present day theologian sympathetic to the canonical writings, he tries very hard to hear and open up the message of those writings in their own historical context, and from there to suggest how that message speaks to us today.
He might be the most important Christian writer of our era, and I can promise you, even if you don’t ultimately buy what he is saying, you will understand Christianity better -- simple, basic, real Christianity anyway.
He is also contemporary. The book is copyrighted 2006. That means he is writing post Nag Hammadi, post Gospel of Thomas, post Da Vinci Code etc. And Wright is an historian as much as a theologian. So, given these two facts, it’s not like the reader can say, “well, this is an old book and he just couldn’t have known what we were going to discover in those caves in 1946 and after.”
Wright as a man, a pastor, and a minister, is in tune with the deepest longings and aspirations of the human heart. He is culturally astute enough to see how these aspirations and longings work their way out in life and culture. There is a pastoral gentleness to his writing. It is welcoming and loving. There is a not a hard edge in the book.
I commend Simply Christian to you. I hope you will give it a read.
Peace. Joel.
Monday, April 10, 2006
No Resurrection, No Christianity, No Jesus
Well, it’s Easter Week, that week which many devout Christians call Holy Week, and that time of year again for the media to drag out their latest and greatest anti-Christian darlings, the newest and most delicious attempts to disprove the bodily resurrection of Jesus, and most other core aspects of historic Christianity. The fact The Da Vinci Code is about to be released does not help as regards the traditional Christianity feeding frenzy.
It’s about as predictable as the flowering of the dogwoods just outside my window, just not nearly so pretty. And people lap it up like bees drinking the nectar on my red bud tree.
Can you imagine the outcry if this were to happen every year before and during Muslim holy week?
Anyway, that aside, here basically is the deal. Almost everyone who is not an outright atheist believes in some sort of “spiritual” resurrection, some sort of continued existence after this life is over. There are many versions and varieties of spiritual resurrection. There are many types or kinds of spirituality centered around these versions of spiritual resurrection. There is a lot of personal autonomy in picking and choosing the kind of spirituality that goes with various versions of spiritual resurrection.
This has always been so. And it has always been so that forms and versions of spirituality that favor spiritual verses bodily resurrection, indeed which favor spiritual verses bodily existence, have co-opted the Christian message, and tried to make it into what it most definitely is not.
Thus the current rage for the Gnostics, and the “Gnostic Gospels” and the many and varied attempts to disprove the bodily resurrection of Jesus, to posit grand conspiracies (usually paternalistic, misogynist, homophobic, and power hungry) that worked in the early church to extinguish counter voices that allegedly got at the “real” Jesus more than the canonical Gospels and Epistles did, etc.
For the truth is, as goes the bodily resurrection of Jesus, so goes historic Christianity. Some would say that thereby a window opens to the “real” Jesus of history. That is utter rubbish. If the canonical Gospels/Acts/Epistles do not reveal a historic and real Jesus, there will be no historic and real Jesus to be revealed. Better just to be honest about it up front, quit trying to co-opt Jesus for whatever modern sensibility you’re trying to use Jesus to promote or establish, and just say there is nothing to that Jesus thing but a little blip on the screen of first century Jewish history.
The problem for everybody, if the bodily resurrection of Jesus is real and true, is that Jesus is real and alive today, that most likely the Gospels and Epistles are real and true accountings of His life, His death, and His resurrection, and that they are also real and true accountings of His expectations, His call to faith and repentance, His call to Himself as Lord, His call to embrace of His atoning death.
So, in truth, a lot is at stake.
It would be so much better I think just to say that Jesus died and stayed dead, that therefore he was not a great prophet but just another in a long line of would be messiahs who ended up on the wrong end of a Roman cross, and that Christianity is false and bogus from beginning to end. If someone would just say THAT it would be almost refreshing.
But if you’re going to say that with integrity today you’re going to have to deal with the Resurrection of the Son of God by N. T. Wright, currently the most definitive historical work on the subject, one that that deals most completely with the movements prior to, contemporary with, and following the life of Jesus, and how they impacted, interacted, and often co-opted the message of Christianity as first presented by the early church.
If you are going to the trouble of reading all the other stuff on the market, particularly this time of year, then do the work, and read Wright’s book. Then decide what you think. If you haven’t read Wright’s book, or a book like it (and there just isn’t one thorough and current enough to suggest as an alternative), then you really cannot have a credible scholarly or historical opinion. You can have a personal opinion, just not a credible scholarly or historical one.
And if you’re going to get all ga ga about The Da Vinci Code, at least read a decent debunking by someone who doesn’t go for historical Christianity, say Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code : A Historian Reveals What We Really Know about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Constantine, by our very own historic Christianity hater Bart Ehrman of UNC Chapel Hill, and after you’ve read Ehrman, then read Wright who will debunk Ehrman’s silliness in other respects.
The bottom line is this: no bodily resurrection, no Christianity. Let’s be honest enough to say so, and give up the hopeless and misguided attempts to find the “real” Jesus behind the smoke and mirrors of the canonical writings. He, whoever he was, is not to be found, if he is not to be found there.
Joel
It’s about as predictable as the flowering of the dogwoods just outside my window, just not nearly so pretty. And people lap it up like bees drinking the nectar on my red bud tree.
Can you imagine the outcry if this were to happen every year before and during Muslim holy week?
Anyway, that aside, here basically is the deal. Almost everyone who is not an outright atheist believes in some sort of “spiritual” resurrection, some sort of continued existence after this life is over. There are many versions and varieties of spiritual resurrection. There are many types or kinds of spirituality centered around these versions of spiritual resurrection. There is a lot of personal autonomy in picking and choosing the kind of spirituality that goes with various versions of spiritual resurrection.
This has always been so. And it has always been so that forms and versions of spirituality that favor spiritual verses bodily resurrection, indeed which favor spiritual verses bodily existence, have co-opted the Christian message, and tried to make it into what it most definitely is not.
Thus the current rage for the Gnostics, and the “Gnostic Gospels” and the many and varied attempts to disprove the bodily resurrection of Jesus, to posit grand conspiracies (usually paternalistic, misogynist, homophobic, and power hungry) that worked in the early church to extinguish counter voices that allegedly got at the “real” Jesus more than the canonical Gospels and Epistles did, etc.
For the truth is, as goes the bodily resurrection of Jesus, so goes historic Christianity. Some would say that thereby a window opens to the “real” Jesus of history. That is utter rubbish. If the canonical Gospels/Acts/Epistles do not reveal a historic and real Jesus, there will be no historic and real Jesus to be revealed. Better just to be honest about it up front, quit trying to co-opt Jesus for whatever modern sensibility you’re trying to use Jesus to promote or establish, and just say there is nothing to that Jesus thing but a little blip on the screen of first century Jewish history.
The problem for everybody, if the bodily resurrection of Jesus is real and true, is that Jesus is real and alive today, that most likely the Gospels and Epistles are real and true accountings of His life, His death, and His resurrection, and that they are also real and true accountings of His expectations, His call to faith and repentance, His call to Himself as Lord, His call to embrace of His atoning death.
So, in truth, a lot is at stake.
It would be so much better I think just to say that Jesus died and stayed dead, that therefore he was not a great prophet but just another in a long line of would be messiahs who ended up on the wrong end of a Roman cross, and that Christianity is false and bogus from beginning to end. If someone would just say THAT it would be almost refreshing.
But if you’re going to say that with integrity today you’re going to have to deal with the Resurrection of the Son of God by N. T. Wright, currently the most definitive historical work on the subject, one that that deals most completely with the movements prior to, contemporary with, and following the life of Jesus, and how they impacted, interacted, and often co-opted the message of Christianity as first presented by the early church.
If you are going to the trouble of reading all the other stuff on the market, particularly this time of year, then do the work, and read Wright’s book. Then decide what you think. If you haven’t read Wright’s book, or a book like it (and there just isn’t one thorough and current enough to suggest as an alternative), then you really cannot have a credible scholarly or historical opinion. You can have a personal opinion, just not a credible scholarly or historical one.
And if you’re going to get all ga ga about The Da Vinci Code, at least read a decent debunking by someone who doesn’t go for historical Christianity, say Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code : A Historian Reveals What We Really Know about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Constantine, by our very own historic Christianity hater Bart Ehrman of UNC Chapel Hill, and after you’ve read Ehrman, then read Wright who will debunk Ehrman’s silliness in other respects.
The bottom line is this: no bodily resurrection, no Christianity. Let’s be honest enough to say so, and give up the hopeless and misguided attempts to find the “real” Jesus behind the smoke and mirrors of the canonical writings. He, whoever he was, is not to be found, if he is not to be found there.
Joel
Friday, April 07, 2006
American Aquarium Secret Code
My daughter just e-mailed me. If you’re going to the Greene Street Club (113 North Greene Street) to see American Aquarium, you can say the codeword “goldfish” at the door and get in for $10 rather than $15.
The Lord’s Supper and Passover
I was looking for something I had written a while back about Maundy Thursday, and though I did not come up with what I was looking for, I did find this newsletter piece which preceded the sermon from the Gospel of Mark on the “Last Supper.” Basically this writing gives the Jewish Passover background to the Christian Lord’s Supper. It is also relevant as we think about our upcoming Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday celebrations.
We turn in the sermon this week to the famous “Last Supper” which Jesus shared with his disciples before his passion. We will concentrate on verses 22-25:
(12) On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus' disciples asked him, "Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?" (13) So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, "Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. (14) Say to the owner of the house he enters, 'The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?' (15) He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there." (16) The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.
(17) When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. (18) While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me--one who is eating with me." (19) They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, "Surely not I?" (20) "It is one of the Twelve," he replied, "one who dips bread into the bowl with me. (21) The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born."
(22) While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take it; this is my body." (23) Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it. (24) "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many," he said to them. (25) "I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God."
(26) When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
As we know this last meal which Jesus shared with his disciples was in fact a Jewish Passover meal. During this meal Jesus instituted a new ritual meal to be shared by his followers. For followers of Jesus this new meal fulfilled and ultimately replaced the Passover, though its meaning would always be rooted in the Passover. We call this new meal of Jesus the “Lord’s Supper” or “Eucharist” or “Communion.”
Much has been debated and written regarding the nature of Christ’s presence in the elements of communion, the issue of protecting the table, the question of self examination, the matter of children and when they should participate, the issue of how often the meal should be celebrated, etc. Obviously I cannot in one sermon address all the issues which have divided the church through the ages surrounding this meal, which ironically was and is supposed to be an expression of Christian unity! I will focus in the sermon on opening up the meaning of Jesus’ words as they were spoken in the context of a Passover celebration. In this letter I mainly hope to provide some helpful background.
The Jewish Passover was associated with the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which began on the 15th day of the month of Nisan, in the spring, between mid-March and mid-April of each year, the first month of the “ecclesiastical” year in the Jewish calendar, and which lasted a week or so. Passover actually took place right at the front end of the week long Feast of Unleavened Bread. Both the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Passover remembered and celebrated the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. I encourage you to read carefully Exodus chapter twelve which describes the very first “Passover.” It would be good to read this chapter to your children. This chapter is too long to paste into the letter, so I have included a section from Deuteronomy which speaks about the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Passover celebration.
Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover of the LORD your God, because in the month of Abib he brought you out of Egypt by night. Sacrifice as the Passover to the LORD your God an animal from your flock or herd at the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for his Name. Do not eat it with bread made with yeast, but for seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste--so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt. Let no yeast be found in your possession in all your land for seven days. Do not let any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until morning. You must not sacrifice the Passover in any town the LORD your God gives you except in the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name. There you must sacrifice the Passover in the evening, when the sun goes down, on the anniversary of your departure from Egypt. Roast it and eat it at the place the LORD your God will choose. Then in the morning return to your tents. For six days eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day hold an assembly to the LORD your God and do no work (Deuteronomy 16:1-8).
The month of Nissan began on the day of the new moon closest in time to the spring or vernal equinox. The Feast of Unleavened Bread began on the 15th day of Nisan, or two weeks after the new moon, which meant that there was a full moon the night Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemene. Final preparations for the Passover sacrifices at the temple took place on the late afternoon of the 14th day of Nisan, the Passover meal itself taking place the evening after this afternoon sacrifice. Since the Jews reckoned the beginning of their day at sunset, the sacrifice took place on 14th of Nisan (before sunset) while the Passover meal on the 15th. (after sunset). For the year of Jesus’ death both the day of the 14th of Nisan and the evening of the 15th of Nisan were on what would now call a Thursday. This is why many Christians celebrate “Maundy Thursday.”
On the Thursday morning, before noon, Jesus sends two of his disciples, Peter and John, too see that they had everything needed for he Passover meal. Each Passover lamb sacrificed was to serve fir a “company” of people – a family, or in this case, for Jesus and his disciples. Peter and John would have purchased a lamb either on the mount of olives or in the city and taken it up to the temple to be sacrificed. There they would have joined in the festivities at the temple, being placed in organized divisions with others. At the right time At the right time – and it was all very well choreographed and organized -- they would have slain the lamb themselves, the blood of the lamb collected in a bowl and passed up to the fire where the priests would pour it out onto the fire, and all the while the company of people singing the Hallel psalms antiphonally with the Levites. The lamb’s body would then be passed along to be hung up and cleaned, the entrails and other wastes being also added to the sacrificial fire. Eventually Peter and John would take the lamb, hang it from a branch, carry it carefully through the city to the meeting room, and begin the process of cocking the lamb according to all the Levitical rules. The lamb was to be roasted on a spit of pomegranate wood. Even while cooking the lamb was to remain undefiled -- no part of the cooking lamb could be allowed to touch the oven; if it did, it was to be cut off. Water could not even be added to the roasting meat. Not a bone of lamb was to be broken during the preparation or eating. The unbrokenness of the lamb’s bones symbolized the unbrokenness of fellowship with YHWH. The entire lamb had to eaten by morning, and whatever was not eaten was to burned
The celebration had changed much between its first institution and in Jesus’ day. Rather than being dressed in clothes symbolizing readiness for flight, Passover celebrants were to be dressed in festive garments. Rather than eating while standing “in the manner of slaves,” the participants were to recline, or sit leaning,” as men having been delivered from bondage to freedom, with their left arm on the low table and their right hand free to eat and drink.
By Jesus’ day the use of wine had become a traditional part of the meal. This wine was to express Israel’s joy on this special night. Four times during the Passover meal when wine was shared and drunk by those present. These “four cups” had been well worked into the older Passover meal, the first and third cups being the most important, the third cup, called the “cup of blessing” or the “cup of redemption” the most important of all. When it says in Mark 14:23 that Jesus “took the cup,” this cup is the “third cup,” the cup of redemption, which represented the blood of the sacrificial lamb having been poured out and spread over the lentil piece. Jesus goes on to invest new meaning to this cup, which now will represent his own shed blood. Thus, Jesus’ taking of the cup must be understood in light of this part of the traditional Passover celebration. Interestingly, the fourth cup, which looked ahead to that further work of redemption which the Jews looked to God to accomplish, provided the context for Jesus to make his reference to not drinking until the he drinks it anew in the consummated messianic kingdom (Mark 14:25).
In addition, it had become customary over time to sing Psalms during the Passover meal. Over the course of time five Psalms in particular came to be associated with the celebration of the great festivals. These are called the “Hallel Psalms,” known together as the “Egyptian Hallel," Psalms commemorating deliverance – deliverance from Egypt and deliverance from God’s enemies in general. If you look up these Psalms you will see for the most part that they begin with “Praise the LORD,” which we have all learned by now translates the Hebrew “Hallelu Yah,” or “Praise YHWH.” Hence the name “Hallel Psalms.”
These Psalms came to be used as part of the corporate and family worship liturgy of the great festivals, and “served as a focus for the prayer, praise, and thanksgiving of every pious Jew.” At Passover, for example, Psalms 113 and 114 were commonly sung before the meal and Psalms 115-118 were sung after the meal.
When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives (Mark 14:26).
It is likely that this “hymn” (or song) consisted of Psalms 115-118, which means that Psalm 118 was probably the very last Psalm sung by the Lord Jesus.
We are probably mostly familiar with the basic elements of the Passover meal – the bitter herbs, the unleavened bread, and the Passover lamb. St. Paul’s teacher, rabbi Gamaliel, said of these the following:
Whoever does not explain three things in the Passover has not fulfilled the duty incumbent upon him. These three things are; the Passover lamb, the unleavened bread, and the bitter herbs. The Passover lamb means that God passed over the blood-sprinkled place on the houses of our fathers in Egypt; the unleavened bread means that our fathers were delivered out of Egypt in haste; and the bitter herbs mean that the Egyptians made bitter the lives of our fathers in Egypt.
Typically the bitter herbs and bread were dipped or “sopped” into either salted water, or vinegar, or a mixture of dates and raisins in vinegar, called Charoseth. Over the course of time the exact procedure regarding the breaking and passing the bread changed, and it is hard to say whether in Jesus’ last supper the bread was passed once, twice, or three times. However many times the bread was passed, the unleavened loaf would be broken by the host and then passed to the guests. This is the “breaking” of the bread behind Jesus idea of Christ’s body being “broken” in our communion meal.
It is hard to say just what Passover pattern Jesus and the disciples followed exactly. We are fairly certain of some of the features, but there was not an absolute set pattern and always some manner of flexibility. In the chart below I have outlined a likely scenario for Jesus last meal with the disciples. On the right I have tried to show where the tidbits we have from the NT texts fit into the overall course of the meal. What is important is for us to understand the meaning of Jesus’ words in their context, which is what I will try to draw out in the sermon Sunday.
Toward the end of the day Jesus and the rest would have left Bethany to enter the city. As Jesus approached the city this would have been the last time he was to see the city in daylight. Jesus and the rest of the disciples would have entered the city, wound through the familiar streets until they found the place prepared for their meal, and there joined up with Peter and John who would have been roasting the lamb. At Sundown of this “Thursday” the Jewish day became the 15th of Nissan.
Typical 1st Century Passover “Seder” compared to Jesus’ Last Supper
Typical 1st Century Passover: Guests take their places
Jesus’ Last Supper: The seating arrangement provokes a dispute about who is the greatest (Luke 22:24-30).
Typical 1st Century Passover: Blessing and drinking of first cup of wine and the “thanksgiving”
Jesus’ Last Supper: After taking the cup, he gave thanks…(Luke 22:17)
Typical 1st Century Passover: Head of party washes hands
Jesus’ Last Supper: Jesus washes disciples feet (John 13:4-5)
Typical 1st Century Passover: Meal is brought in:
Unleavened bread
Bitter herbs
Stewed fruit
Roast Lamb
Herbs dipped in salt water or the “Caroseth,” and passed
The dishes are removed
Question of the youngest present
The host reviews Israel’s salvation history
The dishes returned
Explanation of each part of supper by host
First Part of Hallel Sung – Psalms 113 and 114
Drinking of the second cup
Hands washed again
Typical 1st Century Passover: Blessing, breaking and passing of unleavened cake with bitter herbs between them, which is dipped in the salt water or the “Caroseth”
Jesus’ Last Supper: Jesus is troubled in spirit (John 13:21).
John asks Jesus who is the one (John 13:25).
Jesus dips bread and gives to Judas (John 13:26).
Judas gets up and leaves (John 13:30).
Typical 1st Century Passover: Eating of roasted lamb.
Typical 1st Century Passover: Passing of piece of unleavened bread. Normally no food was eaten after the lamb. This was an innovation.
Jesus’ Last Supper: Jesus took bread gave thanks and broke it…”this is my body” (Mark 14:22).
Typical 1st Century Passover: Washing of hands
Typical 1st Century Passover: Blessing and Drinking of the third cup, the “cup of blessing” or “cup of redemption”
Jesus’ Last Supper: Paul’s “cup of blessing” (1 Corinthians 11:24)
Then he took the cup, gave thanks…“this is my blood” (Mark 14:23).
Typical 1st Century Passover: Drinking of the fourth cup
Jesus’ Last Supper: “I tell you the truth…” (Mark 14:25)
Typical 1st Century Passover: Singing of second part of Hallel
Jesus’ Last Supper: When they had sung a hymn… (Mark 14:26)
We turn in the sermon this week to the famous “Last Supper” which Jesus shared with his disciples before his passion. We will concentrate on verses 22-25:
(12) On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus' disciples asked him, "Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?" (13) So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, "Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. (14) Say to the owner of the house he enters, 'The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?' (15) He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there." (16) The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.
(17) When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. (18) While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me--one who is eating with me." (19) They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, "Surely not I?" (20) "It is one of the Twelve," he replied, "one who dips bread into the bowl with me. (21) The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born."
(22) While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take it; this is my body." (23) Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it. (24) "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many," he said to them. (25) "I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God."
(26) When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
As we know this last meal which Jesus shared with his disciples was in fact a Jewish Passover meal. During this meal Jesus instituted a new ritual meal to be shared by his followers. For followers of Jesus this new meal fulfilled and ultimately replaced the Passover, though its meaning would always be rooted in the Passover. We call this new meal of Jesus the “Lord’s Supper” or “Eucharist” or “Communion.”
Much has been debated and written regarding the nature of Christ’s presence in the elements of communion, the issue of protecting the table, the question of self examination, the matter of children and when they should participate, the issue of how often the meal should be celebrated, etc. Obviously I cannot in one sermon address all the issues which have divided the church through the ages surrounding this meal, which ironically was and is supposed to be an expression of Christian unity! I will focus in the sermon on opening up the meaning of Jesus’ words as they were spoken in the context of a Passover celebration. In this letter I mainly hope to provide some helpful background.
The Jewish Passover was associated with the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which began on the 15th day of the month of Nisan, in the spring, between mid-March and mid-April of each year, the first month of the “ecclesiastical” year in the Jewish calendar, and which lasted a week or so. Passover actually took place right at the front end of the week long Feast of Unleavened Bread. Both the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Passover remembered and celebrated the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. I encourage you to read carefully Exodus chapter twelve which describes the very first “Passover.” It would be good to read this chapter to your children. This chapter is too long to paste into the letter, so I have included a section from Deuteronomy which speaks about the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Passover celebration.
Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover of the LORD your God, because in the month of Abib he brought you out of Egypt by night. Sacrifice as the Passover to the LORD your God an animal from your flock or herd at the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for his Name. Do not eat it with bread made with yeast, but for seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste--so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt. Let no yeast be found in your possession in all your land for seven days. Do not let any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until morning. You must not sacrifice the Passover in any town the LORD your God gives you except in the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name. There you must sacrifice the Passover in the evening, when the sun goes down, on the anniversary of your departure from Egypt. Roast it and eat it at the place the LORD your God will choose. Then in the morning return to your tents. For six days eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day hold an assembly to the LORD your God and do no work (Deuteronomy 16:1-8).
The month of Nissan began on the day of the new moon closest in time to the spring or vernal equinox. The Feast of Unleavened Bread began on the 15th day of Nisan, or two weeks after the new moon, which meant that there was a full moon the night Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemene. Final preparations for the Passover sacrifices at the temple took place on the late afternoon of the 14th day of Nisan, the Passover meal itself taking place the evening after this afternoon sacrifice. Since the Jews reckoned the beginning of their day at sunset, the sacrifice took place on 14th of Nisan (before sunset) while the Passover meal on the 15th. (after sunset). For the year of Jesus’ death both the day of the 14th of Nisan and the evening of the 15th of Nisan were on what would now call a Thursday. This is why many Christians celebrate “Maundy Thursday.”
On the Thursday morning, before noon, Jesus sends two of his disciples, Peter and John, too see that they had everything needed for he Passover meal. Each Passover lamb sacrificed was to serve fir a “company” of people – a family, or in this case, for Jesus and his disciples. Peter and John would have purchased a lamb either on the mount of olives or in the city and taken it up to the temple to be sacrificed. There they would have joined in the festivities at the temple, being placed in organized divisions with others. At the right time At the right time – and it was all very well choreographed and organized -- they would have slain the lamb themselves, the blood of the lamb collected in a bowl and passed up to the fire where the priests would pour it out onto the fire, and all the while the company of people singing the Hallel psalms antiphonally with the Levites. The lamb’s body would then be passed along to be hung up and cleaned, the entrails and other wastes being also added to the sacrificial fire. Eventually Peter and John would take the lamb, hang it from a branch, carry it carefully through the city to the meeting room, and begin the process of cocking the lamb according to all the Levitical rules. The lamb was to be roasted on a spit of pomegranate wood. Even while cooking the lamb was to remain undefiled -- no part of the cooking lamb could be allowed to touch the oven; if it did, it was to be cut off. Water could not even be added to the roasting meat. Not a bone of lamb was to be broken during the preparation or eating. The unbrokenness of the lamb’s bones symbolized the unbrokenness of fellowship with YHWH. The entire lamb had to eaten by morning, and whatever was not eaten was to burned
The celebration had changed much between its first institution and in Jesus’ day. Rather than being dressed in clothes symbolizing readiness for flight, Passover celebrants were to be dressed in festive garments. Rather than eating while standing “in the manner of slaves,” the participants were to recline, or sit leaning,” as men having been delivered from bondage to freedom, with their left arm on the low table and their right hand free to eat and drink.
By Jesus’ day the use of wine had become a traditional part of the meal. This wine was to express Israel’s joy on this special night. Four times during the Passover meal when wine was shared and drunk by those present. These “four cups” had been well worked into the older Passover meal, the first and third cups being the most important, the third cup, called the “cup of blessing” or the “cup of redemption” the most important of all. When it says in Mark 14:23 that Jesus “took the cup,” this cup is the “third cup,” the cup of redemption, which represented the blood of the sacrificial lamb having been poured out and spread over the lentil piece. Jesus goes on to invest new meaning to this cup, which now will represent his own shed blood. Thus, Jesus’ taking of the cup must be understood in light of this part of the traditional Passover celebration. Interestingly, the fourth cup, which looked ahead to that further work of redemption which the Jews looked to God to accomplish, provided the context for Jesus to make his reference to not drinking until the he drinks it anew in the consummated messianic kingdom (Mark 14:25).
In addition, it had become customary over time to sing Psalms during the Passover meal. Over the course of time five Psalms in particular came to be associated with the celebration of the great festivals. These are called the “Hallel Psalms,” known together as the “Egyptian Hallel," Psalms commemorating deliverance – deliverance from Egypt and deliverance from God’s enemies in general. If you look up these Psalms you will see for the most part that they begin with “Praise the LORD,” which we have all learned by now translates the Hebrew “Hallelu Yah,” or “Praise YHWH.” Hence the name “Hallel Psalms.”
These Psalms came to be used as part of the corporate and family worship liturgy of the great festivals, and “served as a focus for the prayer, praise, and thanksgiving of every pious Jew.” At Passover, for example, Psalms 113 and 114 were commonly sung before the meal and Psalms 115-118 were sung after the meal.
When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives (Mark 14:26).
It is likely that this “hymn” (or song) consisted of Psalms 115-118, which means that Psalm 118 was probably the very last Psalm sung by the Lord Jesus.
We are probably mostly familiar with the basic elements of the Passover meal – the bitter herbs, the unleavened bread, and the Passover lamb. St. Paul’s teacher, rabbi Gamaliel, said of these the following:
Whoever does not explain three things in the Passover has not fulfilled the duty incumbent upon him. These three things are; the Passover lamb, the unleavened bread, and the bitter herbs. The Passover lamb means that God passed over the blood-sprinkled place on the houses of our fathers in Egypt; the unleavened bread means that our fathers were delivered out of Egypt in haste; and the bitter herbs mean that the Egyptians made bitter the lives of our fathers in Egypt.
Typically the bitter herbs and bread were dipped or “sopped” into either salted water, or vinegar, or a mixture of dates and raisins in vinegar, called Charoseth. Over the course of time the exact procedure regarding the breaking and passing the bread changed, and it is hard to say whether in Jesus’ last supper the bread was passed once, twice, or three times. However many times the bread was passed, the unleavened loaf would be broken by the host and then passed to the guests. This is the “breaking” of the bread behind Jesus idea of Christ’s body being “broken” in our communion meal.
It is hard to say just what Passover pattern Jesus and the disciples followed exactly. We are fairly certain of some of the features, but there was not an absolute set pattern and always some manner of flexibility. In the chart below I have outlined a likely scenario for Jesus last meal with the disciples. On the right I have tried to show where the tidbits we have from the NT texts fit into the overall course of the meal. What is important is for us to understand the meaning of Jesus’ words in their context, which is what I will try to draw out in the sermon Sunday.
Toward the end of the day Jesus and the rest would have left Bethany to enter the city. As Jesus approached the city this would have been the last time he was to see the city in daylight. Jesus and the rest of the disciples would have entered the city, wound through the familiar streets until they found the place prepared for their meal, and there joined up with Peter and John who would have been roasting the lamb. At Sundown of this “Thursday” the Jewish day became the 15th of Nissan.
Typical 1st Century Passover “Seder” compared to Jesus’ Last Supper
Typical 1st Century Passover: Guests take their places
Jesus’ Last Supper: The seating arrangement provokes a dispute about who is the greatest (Luke 22:24-30).
Typical 1st Century Passover: Blessing and drinking of first cup of wine and the “thanksgiving”
Jesus’ Last Supper: After taking the cup, he gave thanks…(Luke 22:17)
Typical 1st Century Passover: Head of party washes hands
Jesus’ Last Supper: Jesus washes disciples feet (John 13:4-5)
Typical 1st Century Passover: Meal is brought in:
Unleavened bread
Bitter herbs
Stewed fruit
Roast Lamb
Herbs dipped in salt water or the “Caroseth,” and passed
The dishes are removed
Question of the youngest present
The host reviews Israel’s salvation history
The dishes returned
Explanation of each part of supper by host
First Part of Hallel Sung – Psalms 113 and 114
Drinking of the second cup
Hands washed again
Typical 1st Century Passover: Blessing, breaking and passing of unleavened cake with bitter herbs between them, which is dipped in the salt water or the “Caroseth”
Jesus’ Last Supper: Jesus is troubled in spirit (John 13:21).
John asks Jesus who is the one (John 13:25).
Jesus dips bread and gives to Judas (John 13:26).
Judas gets up and leaves (John 13:30).
Typical 1st Century Passover: Eating of roasted lamb.
Typical 1st Century Passover: Passing of piece of unleavened bread. Normally no food was eaten after the lamb. This was an innovation.
Jesus’ Last Supper: Jesus took bread gave thanks and broke it…”this is my body” (Mark 14:22).
Typical 1st Century Passover: Washing of hands
Typical 1st Century Passover: Blessing and Drinking of the third cup, the “cup of blessing” or “cup of redemption”
Jesus’ Last Supper: Paul’s “cup of blessing” (1 Corinthians 11:24)
Then he took the cup, gave thanks…“this is my blood” (Mark 14:23).
Typical 1st Century Passover: Drinking of the fourth cup
Jesus’ Last Supper: “I tell you the truth…” (Mark 14:25)
Typical 1st Century Passover: Singing of second part of Hallel
Jesus’ Last Supper: When they had sung a hymn… (Mark 14:26)
I would like now to comment on the significance of Jesus’ words in Mark 14:22-25. First I will look at his words regarding the bread, then his words about the cup, and then his words about the consummation. First the bread:
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take it; this is my body."
As mentioned above, the passing and eating of the bread at this point in the meal was a variation from the normal Passover procedure, and would have been seen as such by the disciples. Normally no food was eaten after the Passover lamb. This innovation or variation itself would have made an impression upon the disciples. It also would have “upstaged” the lamb itself.
The “bread” was actually a loaf or cake of unleavened bread. Jesus took hold of this loaf and gave thanks – possibly saying something similar to the traditional Passover prayer -- “Blessed art thou, king of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.” As you may know, the Greek word for “giving thanks” is eucharisto, from which we get one of the names of the Lord’s Supper – the “Eucharist.”
Jesus then broke the bread and likely gave a piece to each person rather than just passing the whole loaf around. The actual “breaking” of the bread would of course came to have more significance than being merely a way to get pieces of the loaf to each person. Rather, this act of breaking the bread would be associated with Jesus own atoning sacrifice and death.
Then Jesus spoke the words that have become surrounded with controversy, “Take, eat, this is my body.”
Nothing could have been further from Jesus’ mind than our debates about whether the resurrected Christ is present in or under or through or above or beside or around the bread, or whether the bread in some sense “becomes” Jesus physical body. These may indeed be interesting and important debates, but to try to recruit Jesus’ here as speaking to them is not really proper.
This word “is” in the statement has a large range of meaning and does not convey some strict literalistic sense that the piece of bread physically is or becomes Jesus’ physical body. Instead, the context of the Passover meal certainly provides the clue to how we should take these words. Just as aspects of the Passover meal represented, stood for, or called to mind central aspects of God’s saving work, so also the breaking of Jesus’ body brings to mind the ultimate soon-to-be-revealed aspect of God’s saving work – the atoning death of Jesus.
By eating the bread that so calls to mind and represents and symbolizes Jesus’ sacrificial death, the participant is identifying himself with Jesus and his work. He is laying claim to and celebrating the benefit of this atoning work.
Turning to the wine, we read that:
Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it.
As mentioned above the cup which Jesus took would have been the “third cup,” or “cup of redemption,” or “cup of blessing.” Again, as with the bread, Jesus gave thanks. Perhaps he would have spoken one of the traditional words of blessing over the cup, “Blessed art thou O Lord our God King of the Universe, creator of the fruit of the vine.”
Jesus then passed the cup around and they all drank from it. The cup would have been a common cup, and the drinking together from this common cup would have given a greater sense that sharing in the cup was a corporate matter – a common sharing in that which the cup symbolized.
Before or during or after the passing and drinking of this cup, Jesus spoke the words:
"This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many," he said to them
There is some evidence that the third cup of the Passover meal was cut or diluted with warm water to more accurately convey its association with the blood of the Passover lamb. Jesus springs from the connection between the wine of the cup of blessing and the blood of the sacrificial Passover lamb, and then changes the association. The wine now represents and calls to mind not the blood of the Passover lamb, but his own blood. Indeed, he now is the real Passover Lamb!
Again, the use of the word “is” should not be made to answer questions about the nature of Christ’s presence in the wine. Just what the cup represent? It is “my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many.”
In these few words Jesus is alluding to three very important Old Testament Scriptures --
Exodus 24:8; Jeremiah 31:31; and Ezekiel 37:26.
The phrase “blood of the covenant” harkens back to Exodus 24:8:
Exodus 24:5-8 Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the LORD. Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, "We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey." Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words."
If you read the verses leading up to Exodus 24:8 you will see that this extremely important passage describes the ratification of the covenant between YHWH and the people of Israel. YHWH has rescued His people from Egypt. He has become their God, and they His people. He has bonded Himself to them. He is the covenant Lord, the covenant king. They, the people, are the subjects, the vassals. He the Covenant Lord makes promises to them, and they the people make pledges to Him. They agree to honor Him by living according to the stipulations of the law. As they walk faithfully before Him, He will protect and bless them; if they are disloyal and turn from Him, he will curse them. Now, by verse 5 of Exodus 24, the people have heard the stipulations of the covenant. It is time for them formally to pledge themselves to YHWH; and He has to them. Animals are sacrificed in a fellowship offering, an offering that celebrates that bond or relationship between the people and their God. The blood of the slain animals is collected in bowls. Moses then dips a hyssop branch into the blood and flings the blood onto the people. It splats onto their clothes, onto their bodies and onto their faces. By submitting to this rite the people are saying, “Yes, we commit ourselves to YHWH. We are His people. So be it done unto us (i.e., that we would be cut up and killed) if we are not faithful to the covenant!”
By alluding to Exodus 24:8 Jesus is saying that participating in the cup of communion is like being a part of a covenant ratification ceremony. This means that those who partake of his cup are saying “Yes” to the offer of God, to the work of God in Jesus, to that bond which He makes with his people through Jesus’ blood. Sharing in Jesus’ cup thus affirms our fellowship with God through Jesus and His work. But it also affirms of our commitment to Him. By participating in it we are taking upon ourselves the stipulations and responsibilities of knowing God as covenant Lord. By participating in it we are agreeing to walk in the way of Jesus, the exalted and sovereign Lamb upon the throne.
This cup representing Jesus’ blood is not splattered onto the people but ingested by them. The phrase “covenant in my blood” points us to the sacrifice of Jesus himself as that which makes possible the new covenant. Jesus’ atoning death is the basis for the relationship or bond between God and His people. This is what Jesus means by “poured out for many.” Jesus is the servant of Isaiah 53, offering his life for his people. Indeed all sacrifices, even the Passover sacrifice, have pointed to Jesus’ sacrifice all along. Jesus’ death provides the way to relationship to God. Jesus’ sacrifice opens up the veil. Jesus’ sacrifice opens up the way to life.
The covenant being spoken about is certainly the ”new” covenant. Other of the gospel accounts use the word “new” here. The newness of this covenant is certainly implied whether the word “new” is included or not. God had promised a time when he would make a new covenant with his people, when he would write the law upon their hearts, when he would be their God and they his people, when he would pour out his spirit upon them and turn their dead bones into living flesh. That time had now come. The way to this new state of affairs is through the sacrifice of Jesus.
The fourth cup is now passed, that cup which looks forward to YHWH’s future and final deliverance of his people:
"I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God."
Paul said that as often as we eat the bread and drink the cup we proclaim the Lords’ death until He comes. Jesus and Paul are both looking ahead to that time when the kingdom is consummated, to the great messianic feast, the feast of the Lamb:
Revelation 19:7-9 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear." (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) Then the angel said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!'" And he added, "These are the true words of God."
Luke 22:29-30 And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Isaiah 25:6-9 On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine-- the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken. In that day they will say, "Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation."
Jesus is anticipating that there will be a period of time between his resurrection and coming again. Yes, he is going away. Yes, it will be a while before he celebrates with them again in person, when he comes in his kingdom at the consummation. Everything ultimately looks ahead to this.
Then Jesus sings the last two Hallel psalms, gets up, and goes forth.
The Haw River and The Haw River State Park
After reading Viewfinder Blues article on his expedition into the deep wilderness of what soon will be our newest State park, the Haw River State Park, I thought I’d reprint an old writing about the Haw River and its tributaries in Guilford County. Click on the hyperlinks to find out about the Haw River State Park.
The Haw River and its Tributaries
The Haw River has a humble beginning near Bethel Church Road in eastern Forsyth County. From there it runs roughly to the northeast through the NW sector of Guilford County before taking a northerly turn into Rockingham County. On the way to Rockingham, the Haw River crosses under Highway 68 at the bridge near Harrell Road. From Highway 68 to Highway 220 the Haw River roughly forms the southern border of the incorporated limits of the town of Stokesdale.
The Haw crosses under Highway 220 at the bottom of the big hill on 220 between Scalesville Road and Highway 158. It then crosses under Lake Brandt Road at the bottomland between Scalesville and 158, and then under Witty Road just as Witty crosses into Rockingham County.
Much of the Haw River area in Guilford County remains undeveloped and contains some of the best remaining forest in our county, including the floodplain and adjacent bluffs and uplands. The state of North Carolina has made plans for the “Haw River State Park,” out first state park in Guilford County.
North Buffalo Creek
North Buffalo Creek begins between Wendover and West Market west of Holden. It crosses Holden at its intersection with Wendover, then flows through Lindley Park, through the Greensboro Arboretum, along Wendover behind Wesley Long Hospital, after which it turns right to follow along the south side of Benjamin Parkway, then through Lake Daniel Park, crossing Battleground at the convergence of Benjamin and Battleground. The lovely city greenways that run through Lindley, Lake Daniel, and Latham parks all follow the course of North Buffalo Creek. From Benjamin and Battleground North Buffalo Creek flows through Latham Park, crossing under Wendover in the often-flooded bottom land between Wendover and Elm, crosses Elm street just north of Cone Hospital, then winds northwest just south of old Carolina Circle Mall. Soon thereafter it passes along the North Buffalo Wastewater treatment plant (the city’s treated wastewater empties into North Buffalo Creek there), and then follows a northwest course along the north side of the White Street Landfill. Eventually it empties into Reedy Creek fork in the northwest apart of Guilford County near the High Rock and Hicone road intersections.
The quality of what has become such an urbanized creek has until recent years been quite poor. But the City of Greensboro, encouraged and aided by various citizens groups, has begun a hopeful project of restoring streams throughout the city. Restoring such a prominent city stream as North Buffalo Creek has been a major goal. This restoration includes allowing the creeks to resume their natural more winding paths (thus slowing down stream flow) and encouraging natural stream side vegetation to grow up along the edges, thus reducing erosion and allowing for greater natural purifying processes to take place. This can be easily seen for example in Lake Daniel Park.
South Buffalo Creek
South Buffalo Creek begins its life along Big Tree Way between Guilford College Road and West Wendover. It runs all the way through Big Tree Park, and then roughly follows an eastward course just north of I-40, passing under Patterson, running through Hunter Hills Park, crossing under Holden just above I-40, then runs through Hillsdale Park along Meadowview near Four seasons Mall. The Hillsdale Park Greenway runs along South Buffalo Creek. South Buffalo Creek then winds back and forth along I-40, alongside the south side of Barber Park, before turning northeastward and cutting across Highway 70 near McLeansville, eventually emptying into North Buffalo Creek near McLeansville Road and Butler Road in the NE part of the county.
Horse Pen Creek
Horse Pen Creek begins very near the corner of West Friendly Avenue West and the little spur of Old Friendly Road near the airport. It flows generally to the northeest, running through Longview Country Club, crossing under Old Oak Ridge Road, Bryan Blvd., and Fleming Roads, and then crossing Horse Pen Creek Road in the marshy bottomland area near the Sullivan Lakes development. It crosses Battleground just north of Battleground Plaza (where the bridge crosses over this often wet bottomland area) and then crosses Old Battleground Road at the bottomland between Lake Brandt Road and Horse Pen Creek Road. It empties shortly thereafter into the south spur of Lake Brandt. The Nat Green Trail, accessible at the parking lot at the bottom of the hill on Old Battleground, follows along this last bit of Horse Pen Creek, eventually crossing the Lake Brandt Greenway.
Reedy Fork Creek
Reedy Fork Creek has its origin just west of the new Triad Park on the Guilford/Forsyth County lines, and runs through the middle of the new park. After that it proceeds on a general northeasterly course through northern Guilford County, eventually emptying into the Haw River in Northeast Alamance County. Reedy Fork Creek is the primary source of water for both Lake Brandt and Lake Townsend. Both Horse Pen Creek and North Buffalo Creek empty into Reedy Fork Creek, though the former confluence of Reedy Fork Creek and Horse Pen Creek lay under present day Lake Brandt.
On its way from Triad Park to Lake Brandt, Reedy Fork Creek forms the southern boundary of the town of Oak Ridge, crossing under Highway 68, Alcorn Road, and Bunch Road (twice – the lowland area on Bunch just south of Pleasant Ridge as well as just north of Northwest School Roads are both due to Reedy Fork Creek). Reedy Fork Creek enters into Lake Brandt just west of the bridge where 220 crosses the lake. The lowland marshy area to your left as you cross the bridge northbound is the entry point of Reedy Fork Creek into the lake. Reedy Fork Creek picks up again as a creek just to the east of the pumping station on Lake Brandt road, to your right as you cross over the bridge/spillway going north. It runs along somewhat backed up for a mile or two (depending on lake Townsend levels) before entering into the easternmost spur of Lake Townsend. After leaving Lake Townsend Reedy Fork Creek crosses Highway 29 and winds generally eastward, crossing through the new sight for Northeast Park (at the convergence of North Buffalo Creek and Reedy Park Creek), crossing under Highway 61 and then the Alamance County border before discharging into the Haw River.
Mears Fork
Mears Fork of the Haw River has its beginning right along highway 220N in Elmhurst Estates in Summerfield. From the it runs roughly northwesterly about half way between Scalesville Road and Highway 150 East, crossing first under Strawberry Road, and then Lake Brandt near where Witty Road runs into Lake Brandt. Mears Fork flows into the Haw River just at the Rockingham/Guilford County line, a good stones throw west from where Church Street crosses into Rockingham County.
Much of Mears Fork remains undeveloped, containing some of our finest remaining hardwood forest in Guilford County. Much of Mears Fork will form part of the Haw River State Park, which will be centered near the convergence of Mears Fork and the Haw River along North Church Street.
Richland Creek
Many residents of Greensboro and Guilford Counties enjoy visiting both Country Park, which is owned by the city, and Battleground Park, which is owned and run by the National Park Service. Forming the major ponds of Country Park, and then running through the middle of the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, is Richland Creek. Leaving the park, Richland Creek then crosses Cottage Place, crosses under Lawndale Drive, and follows the south side of Regents Park drive until it forms Lake Jeanette. Much of the most intense fighting of the battle of Guilford Courthouse took place along Richland Creek, which would for a time have turned red from the blood on so many fallen British and American soldiers.
The Haw River and its Tributaries
The Haw River has a humble beginning near Bethel Church Road in eastern Forsyth County. From there it runs roughly to the northeast through the NW sector of Guilford County before taking a northerly turn into Rockingham County. On the way to Rockingham, the Haw River crosses under Highway 68 at the bridge near Harrell Road. From Highway 68 to Highway 220 the Haw River roughly forms the southern border of the incorporated limits of the town of Stokesdale.
The Haw crosses under Highway 220 at the bottom of the big hill on 220 between Scalesville Road and Highway 158. It then crosses under Lake Brandt Road at the bottomland between Scalesville and 158, and then under Witty Road just as Witty crosses into Rockingham County.
Much of the Haw River area in Guilford County remains undeveloped and contains some of the best remaining forest in our county, including the floodplain and adjacent bluffs and uplands. The state of North Carolina has made plans for the “Haw River State Park,” out first state park in Guilford County.
North Buffalo Creek
North Buffalo Creek begins between Wendover and West Market west of Holden. It crosses Holden at its intersection with Wendover, then flows through Lindley Park, through the Greensboro Arboretum, along Wendover behind Wesley Long Hospital, after which it turns right to follow along the south side of Benjamin Parkway, then through Lake Daniel Park, crossing Battleground at the convergence of Benjamin and Battleground. The lovely city greenways that run through Lindley, Lake Daniel, and Latham parks all follow the course of North Buffalo Creek. From Benjamin and Battleground North Buffalo Creek flows through Latham Park, crossing under Wendover in the often-flooded bottom land between Wendover and Elm, crosses Elm street just north of Cone Hospital, then winds northwest just south of old Carolina Circle Mall. Soon thereafter it passes along the North Buffalo Wastewater treatment plant (the city’s treated wastewater empties into North Buffalo Creek there), and then follows a northwest course along the north side of the White Street Landfill. Eventually it empties into Reedy Creek fork in the northwest apart of Guilford County near the High Rock and Hicone road intersections.
The quality of what has become such an urbanized creek has until recent years been quite poor. But the City of Greensboro, encouraged and aided by various citizens groups, has begun a hopeful project of restoring streams throughout the city. Restoring such a prominent city stream as North Buffalo Creek has been a major goal. This restoration includes allowing the creeks to resume their natural more winding paths (thus slowing down stream flow) and encouraging natural stream side vegetation to grow up along the edges, thus reducing erosion and allowing for greater natural purifying processes to take place. This can be easily seen for example in Lake Daniel Park.
South Buffalo Creek
South Buffalo Creek begins its life along Big Tree Way between Guilford College Road and West Wendover. It runs all the way through Big Tree Park, and then roughly follows an eastward course just north of I-40, passing under Patterson, running through Hunter Hills Park, crossing under Holden just above I-40, then runs through Hillsdale Park along Meadowview near Four seasons Mall. The Hillsdale Park Greenway runs along South Buffalo Creek. South Buffalo Creek then winds back and forth along I-40, alongside the south side of Barber Park, before turning northeastward and cutting across Highway 70 near McLeansville, eventually emptying into North Buffalo Creek near McLeansville Road and Butler Road in the NE part of the county.
Horse Pen Creek
Horse Pen Creek begins very near the corner of West Friendly Avenue West and the little spur of Old Friendly Road near the airport. It flows generally to the northeest, running through Longview Country Club, crossing under Old Oak Ridge Road, Bryan Blvd., and Fleming Roads, and then crossing Horse Pen Creek Road in the marshy bottomland area near the Sullivan Lakes development. It crosses Battleground just north of Battleground Plaza (where the bridge crosses over this often wet bottomland area) and then crosses Old Battleground Road at the bottomland between Lake Brandt Road and Horse Pen Creek Road. It empties shortly thereafter into the south spur of Lake Brandt. The Nat Green Trail, accessible at the parking lot at the bottom of the hill on Old Battleground, follows along this last bit of Horse Pen Creek, eventually crossing the Lake Brandt Greenway.
Reedy Fork Creek
Reedy Fork Creek has its origin just west of the new Triad Park on the Guilford/Forsyth County lines, and runs through the middle of the new park. After that it proceeds on a general northeasterly course through northern Guilford County, eventually emptying into the Haw River in Northeast Alamance County. Reedy Fork Creek is the primary source of water for both Lake Brandt and Lake Townsend. Both Horse Pen Creek and North Buffalo Creek empty into Reedy Fork Creek, though the former confluence of Reedy Fork Creek and Horse Pen Creek lay under present day Lake Brandt.
On its way from Triad Park to Lake Brandt, Reedy Fork Creek forms the southern boundary of the town of Oak Ridge, crossing under Highway 68, Alcorn Road, and Bunch Road (twice – the lowland area on Bunch just south of Pleasant Ridge as well as just north of Northwest School Roads are both due to Reedy Fork Creek). Reedy Fork Creek enters into Lake Brandt just west of the bridge where 220 crosses the lake. The lowland marshy area to your left as you cross the bridge northbound is the entry point of Reedy Fork Creek into the lake. Reedy Fork Creek picks up again as a creek just to the east of the pumping station on Lake Brandt road, to your right as you cross over the bridge/spillway going north. It runs along somewhat backed up for a mile or two (depending on lake Townsend levels) before entering into the easternmost spur of Lake Townsend. After leaving Lake Townsend Reedy Fork Creek crosses Highway 29 and winds generally eastward, crossing through the new sight for Northeast Park (at the convergence of North Buffalo Creek and Reedy Park Creek), crossing under Highway 61 and then the Alamance County border before discharging into the Haw River.
Mears Fork
Mears Fork of the Haw River has its beginning right along highway 220N in Elmhurst Estates in Summerfield. From the it runs roughly northwesterly about half way between Scalesville Road and Highway 150 East, crossing first under Strawberry Road, and then Lake Brandt near where Witty Road runs into Lake Brandt. Mears Fork flows into the Haw River just at the Rockingham/Guilford County line, a good stones throw west from where Church Street crosses into Rockingham County.
Much of Mears Fork remains undeveloped, containing some of our finest remaining hardwood forest in Guilford County. Much of Mears Fork will form part of the Haw River State Park, which will be centered near the convergence of Mears Fork and the Haw River along North Church Street.
Richland Creek
Many residents of Greensboro and Guilford Counties enjoy visiting both Country Park, which is owned by the city, and Battleground Park, which is owned and run by the National Park Service. Forming the major ponds of Country Park, and then running through the middle of the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, is Richland Creek. Leaving the park, Richland Creek then crosses Cottage Place, crosses under Lawndale Drive, and follows the south side of Regents Park drive until it forms Lake Jeanette. Much of the most intense fighting of the battle of Guilford Courthouse took place along Richland Creek, which would for a time have turned red from the blood on so many fallen British and American soldiers.
American Aquarium in Greensboro
The band in which my daughter Shannon plays bass, American Aquarium, will be playing in Greensboro tonight at Green Street Club, opening for a group called Cracker (I am not familiar with them). The show starts at about 9:00PM.
Check ‘em out.
If you’re interested I have several copies of their CD, which I purchased for $10.00 and will sell for $10.00. E-mail me and we can figure out payment and mailing.
If you’d like a preview of their music click on the American Aquarium link above.
Joel
Check ‘em out.
If you’re interested I have several copies of their CD, which I purchased for $10.00 and will sell for $10.00. E-mail me and we can figure out payment and mailing.
If you’d like a preview of their music click on the American Aquarium link above.
Joel
Friday, March 31, 2006
He Was Wounded for Our Transgressions
This coming Sunday our church is having communion, and as a preliminary there will be a reading – the entirety of Isaiah 53. As most people know, Christians see these words fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For the Christian, Isaiah 53 is a reading about Jesus Christ and his ministry unto us, a ministry and work also depicted in the elements – the bread and wine – of the Communion Table. I wanted to leave you with the words for the weekend:
Communion Reading: Isaiah 53
1 Who has believed what they heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned every one to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for sin,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.
Communion Reading: Isaiah 53
1 Who has believed what they heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned every one to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for sin,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.
How About Those Gamecocks
Gamecocks you say? What about all those pictures of me in Clemson sweatshirts? What’s with that?
Well, I mainly went to Clemson. Actually, my dad graduated from UNC Chapel Hill and was a bit of a fanatic Tar Heel. I grew up with tales about Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice who was a contemporary of my dad’s at Chapel Hill, and Ken Willard then with San Francisco, and the North Carolina basketball teams of the mid to late 60’s. I was a huge Charlie Scott fan.
But then I started playing basketball. One day the South Carolina team (the Skip Harlicka era) came out to visit our league for some sort of special event, and I got autographs from most of them. That was neat. The next year or so in came the great team Frank McGuire had recruited from the New York era – Bobby Cremins, John Roche, John Ribbock, Tom Owens, to be followed quickly by the likes of Kevin Joyce, Mike Dunleavy, Brian Winters, Tom Riker, and the great local talent Alex English. (who went to same high school my dad had attended).
Well, that great John Roche team caught my heart, and I even got to meet a lot of them at a Frank McGuire basketball camp. Move over Tar Heels.
Despite my newly changed affections, I actually planned to attend UNC Chapel Hill. I applied early admission, was accepted, and assumed I was going there, until my dad sat down with me over Christmas Break 1974 and told me the news: he could not afford the out of state tuition. I had not even applied to any of the State schools in SC. I really only considered Clemson. I just didn’t want to go to college in my home town.
So off to Clemson I went in the fall of 1975, and I became a Clemson Tiger forever. I was in Steve Fuller and Dwight Clark’s graduating class, and even took a course with them both on South Carolina history. I loved Clemson sports, and still do. I consider Clemson my undergraduate college.
Indeed, the greatest sporting event I ever witnessed in person was the football game in the fall of 1977 between Clemson and South Carolina, at South Carolina. I was there, with all the Clemson crazies, in the end zone. Clemson went up 24 to 0, and it seemed like a route. But then South Carolina stormed back in the fourth quarter to go up 27 to 24. With a little over a minute to go Clemson received the kickoff, and Steve Fuller proceeded to march them down the field, ending the drive on a truly unbelievable pass and catch to Jerry Butler, who was elevated several feet off the ground, completely extended, face up, catching the ball at maximum reach. It was the greatest catch I have ever seen. Fellow Clemson alum Dwight Clark may be known for “The Catch,” but his catch couldn’t hold a candle to Butler’s. Clemson won the game 31 to 27.
Well, as things would go I did not return for the Spring 1978 semester. Instead I worked for a couple of months and then went over to England to study at a place called “L’Abri Fellowship. I had to settle some personal spiritual issues before I continued college.
When I returned in the summer of 1978, I just felt out of step with my Clemson friends and program, and so I ended up taking 21 hours a semester and summer school and graduated from South Carolina in the summer of 1979.
Thus, I am actually a South Carolina alumni.
I still follow South Carolina sports though I am not as keen about the SEC as the ACC. And I am proud of South Carolina winning two NIT’s in a row. It may not be the Big Dance, but there were a lot of good teams South Carolina had to beat to win, including Cincinnati, Louisville, and Michigan. So, my hat's off to South Carolina. Go Gamecocks!
And as to Clemson and South Carolina sports, I remain, forever and a day, a man divided.
Well, I mainly went to Clemson. Actually, my dad graduated from UNC Chapel Hill and was a bit of a fanatic Tar Heel. I grew up with tales about Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice who was a contemporary of my dad’s at Chapel Hill, and Ken Willard then with San Francisco, and the North Carolina basketball teams of the mid to late 60’s. I was a huge Charlie Scott fan.
But then I started playing basketball. One day the South Carolina team (the Skip Harlicka era) came out to visit our league for some sort of special event, and I got autographs from most of them. That was neat. The next year or so in came the great team Frank McGuire had recruited from the New York era – Bobby Cremins, John Roche, John Ribbock, Tom Owens, to be followed quickly by the likes of Kevin Joyce, Mike Dunleavy, Brian Winters, Tom Riker, and the great local talent Alex English. (who went to same high school my dad had attended).
Well, that great John Roche team caught my heart, and I even got to meet a lot of them at a Frank McGuire basketball camp. Move over Tar Heels.
Despite my newly changed affections, I actually planned to attend UNC Chapel Hill. I applied early admission, was accepted, and assumed I was going there, until my dad sat down with me over Christmas Break 1974 and told me the news: he could not afford the out of state tuition. I had not even applied to any of the State schools in SC. I really only considered Clemson. I just didn’t want to go to college in my home town.
So off to Clemson I went in the fall of 1975, and I became a Clemson Tiger forever. I was in Steve Fuller and Dwight Clark’s graduating class, and even took a course with them both on South Carolina history. I loved Clemson sports, and still do. I consider Clemson my undergraduate college.
Indeed, the greatest sporting event I ever witnessed in person was the football game in the fall of 1977 between Clemson and South Carolina, at South Carolina. I was there, with all the Clemson crazies, in the end zone. Clemson went up 24 to 0, and it seemed like a route. But then South Carolina stormed back in the fourth quarter to go up 27 to 24. With a little over a minute to go Clemson received the kickoff, and Steve Fuller proceeded to march them down the field, ending the drive on a truly unbelievable pass and catch to Jerry Butler, who was elevated several feet off the ground, completely extended, face up, catching the ball at maximum reach. It was the greatest catch I have ever seen. Fellow Clemson alum Dwight Clark may be known for “The Catch,” but his catch couldn’t hold a candle to Butler’s. Clemson won the game 31 to 27.
Well, as things would go I did not return for the Spring 1978 semester. Instead I worked for a couple of months and then went over to England to study at a place called “L’Abri Fellowship. I had to settle some personal spiritual issues before I continued college.
When I returned in the summer of 1978, I just felt out of step with my Clemson friends and program, and so I ended up taking 21 hours a semester and summer school and graduated from South Carolina in the summer of 1979.
Thus, I am actually a South Carolina alumni.
I still follow South Carolina sports though I am not as keen about the SEC as the ACC. And I am proud of South Carolina winning two NIT’s in a row. It may not be the Big Dance, but there were a lot of good teams South Carolina had to beat to win, including Cincinnati, Louisville, and Michigan. So, my hat's off to South Carolina. Go Gamecocks!
And as to Clemson and South Carolina sports, I remain, forever and a day, a man divided.
Bud Watching
Greetings to all in Greensboro on a mild last day of March, 2006. I hope your day is going well so far.
Yesterday as I drove by The Perfect Tree on Elm Street I saw that it’s end buds were huge, really to open up and fill the air with Oak pollen. And last evening I noticed that the birch tree catkins (from the white or paper birch trees by our patio) are just starting to swell an elongate. Soon, birch pollen will cover our patio. I pity my neighbors with allergies, but I love, in the true sense of deep affection (and praise to God) the “miracle” of Spring. OK, so I am a biology geek, but tree buds are way cool. Their formation, dormancy, and opening is akin to conception, development, and birth in animals, and almost as fascinating.
Spring is here! Take a break. Go outside and walk around and look at the perfectly ordinary and common tree buds all around you. They are swelling. Many have opened already and we see leaves on their trees–maple trees for example, and hackberries, and red buds. Others are just getting ready. Notice the covering of the bud. All winter long those bud scales, sometimes one big scale, sometimes two, sometimes more, have protected the life inside the bud from the cold and wetness outside. One freezing rain storm after another may coat the tree with ice, but the bud scales keep the life inside the bud safe and ready to grow when the time is right.
Inside are tiny leaves and/or flowers, either well-formed in miniature, or at least already differentiated as cells ready to take on full form. What energy the tree didn’t put into its seeds or store in its roots last summer and fall, it has packed into these buds. Indeed, as last summer wound down, and the buds started to form which would lie dormant over the winter, the tree “knew” to transfer important energy sources from the leaves to the buds. These buds are rich in energy which is why deer and other animals like to eat them. As the buds open they will attract the season’s very earliest insects, crawling and flying, to their moisture and sugars. Over the next few weeks Greensboro will be filled with budding coming-to-life trees, awash with flowers. Tree flowers aren’t always bright and glorious like red buds and cherries. So, like the many varieties of oaks may have some color, but that color may be masked by the beautiful earth tones of the catkins baby leaves. Sometimes the most beautiful things are faint, and less showy. So keep your eyes peeled, and if you have a chance, go on a bud walk. It’s at least as fun as sitting at a computer all day!
Yesterday as I drove by The Perfect Tree on Elm Street I saw that it’s end buds were huge, really to open up and fill the air with Oak pollen. And last evening I noticed that the birch tree catkins (from the white or paper birch trees by our patio) are just starting to swell an elongate. Soon, birch pollen will cover our patio. I pity my neighbors with allergies, but I love, in the true sense of deep affection (and praise to God) the “miracle” of Spring. OK, so I am a biology geek, but tree buds are way cool. Their formation, dormancy, and opening is akin to conception, development, and birth in animals, and almost as fascinating.
Spring is here! Take a break. Go outside and walk around and look at the perfectly ordinary and common tree buds all around you. They are swelling. Many have opened already and we see leaves on their trees–maple trees for example, and hackberries, and red buds. Others are just getting ready. Notice the covering of the bud. All winter long those bud scales, sometimes one big scale, sometimes two, sometimes more, have protected the life inside the bud from the cold and wetness outside. One freezing rain storm after another may coat the tree with ice, but the bud scales keep the life inside the bud safe and ready to grow when the time is right.
Inside are tiny leaves and/or flowers, either well-formed in miniature, or at least already differentiated as cells ready to take on full form. What energy the tree didn’t put into its seeds or store in its roots last summer and fall, it has packed into these buds. Indeed, as last summer wound down, and the buds started to form which would lie dormant over the winter, the tree “knew” to transfer important energy sources from the leaves to the buds. These buds are rich in energy which is why deer and other animals like to eat them. As the buds open they will attract the season’s very earliest insects, crawling and flying, to their moisture and sugars. Over the next few weeks Greensboro will be filled with budding coming-to-life trees, awash with flowers. Tree flowers aren’t always bright and glorious like red buds and cherries. So, like the many varieties of oaks may have some color, but that color may be masked by the beautiful earth tones of the catkins baby leaves. Sometimes the most beautiful things are faint, and less showy. So keep your eyes peeled, and if you have a chance, go on a bud walk. It’s at least as fun as sitting at a computer all day!
Thursday, March 30, 2006
You Say You Want a Revolution
There has been much discussion of late about free speech on the campus of UNCG. I for one am an advocate of as much free speech as possible. I think even the improved policy is a far cry from what it should be at a University of all places.
However, the freedom to speak includes the freedom to speak rudely, and in some cases the freedom to hinder the speech of others. Just because speech and assembly are protected does not mean that the speech or assembly is always wise or kind.
Matt Hill recently wrote in his Anti-Gay Politicians Watch 5: UNCG Red State Day (and here too)about upcoming conservative speakers coming to speak at UNCG, many of them confessedly not too keen about the , many being, in Matt’s words, “negatively outspoken when it comes to LGBT issues.”
It seems that Matt addressed this forum in an appropriate manner, and for that I am thankful and respectful.
However, based on Melissa Westmoreland’s All's fair in war, I suppose, respect for others was just a bit too much for the Anti-War Coalition, a group which shares sympathies with the International Socialist Organization. I encourage you to take a look at Ms. Westmoreland’s piece, and the comments that follow.
The constitutional protrection of speech and assembly includes the protection of mean and silly speech. What kind of bugs me is why a group feels compelled to make noise and otherwise protest the free speech of others. I mean, is their intent, as in the State of the Union Protest downtown, to keep people from tuning in to the speech of others. Why can’t a group like the Anti-war Coalition let the other guys have their turn?
I was made to think all this on the way back from lunch. I turned on the radio to the opening chords of the Beatle’s “Revolution.” It made me think that maybe the anti-war coalition should have a listen. Maybe John Lennnon was on to something…
Revolution
You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right
You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We're doing what we can
But when you want money
for people with minds that hate
All I can tell is brother you have to wait
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right
Ah
ah, ah, ah, ah, ah...
You say you'll change the constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it's the institution
Well, you know
You better free you mind instead
But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao
You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right
all right, all right, all right
all right, all right, all right
However, the freedom to speak includes the freedom to speak rudely, and in some cases the freedom to hinder the speech of others. Just because speech and assembly are protected does not mean that the speech or assembly is always wise or kind.
Matt Hill recently wrote in his Anti-Gay Politicians Watch 5: UNCG Red State Day (and here too)about upcoming conservative speakers coming to speak at UNCG, many of them confessedly not too keen about the , many being, in Matt’s words, “negatively outspoken when it comes to LGBT issues.”
It seems that Matt addressed this forum in an appropriate manner, and for that I am thankful and respectful.
However, based on Melissa Westmoreland’s All's fair in war, I suppose, respect for others was just a bit too much for the Anti-War Coalition, a group which shares sympathies with the International Socialist Organization. I encourage you to take a look at Ms. Westmoreland’s piece, and the comments that follow.
The constitutional protrection of speech and assembly includes the protection of mean and silly speech. What kind of bugs me is why a group feels compelled to make noise and otherwise protest the free speech of others. I mean, is their intent, as in the State of the Union Protest downtown, to keep people from tuning in to the speech of others. Why can’t a group like the Anti-war Coalition let the other guys have their turn?
I was made to think all this on the way back from lunch. I turned on the radio to the opening chords of the Beatle’s “Revolution.” It made me think that maybe the anti-war coalition should have a listen. Maybe John Lennnon was on to something…
Revolution
You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right
You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We're doing what we can
But when you want money
for people with minds that hate
All I can tell is brother you have to wait
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right
Ah
ah, ah, ah, ah, ah...
You say you'll change the constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it's the institution
Well, you know
You better free you mind instead
But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao
You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right
all right, all right, all right
all right, all right, all right
Red Bud
I noticed today driving into the office that the red buds are blooming all over town. They are blooming a little later than last year, although the winter has been warmer. Odd.
Red buds with their splashes of light purple (especially when set along or near a wildly yellow forsythia) make me smile. This dash of purple is from one of our more humble native trees. Why it’s not called the purple bud is a mystery. Not even the bud itself is red, but some see the color as reddish purple, and perhaps growing in different soils it looks more red than purple. But around here both bud and flower are light purple, or at best purplish pink.
The red bud is actually a member of the bean family. As early spring flower turns to fruit, and as the summer progresses, thick dark bean pods about 3 inches long hang heavily from the red bud limbs, and providing another source of food for a few birds such as bobwhites and cardinals, and some mammals such as deer and squirrels, though the red bud fruit is generally not a food favorite. Bees however love the nectar of the flowers. The bean pods persist often well into winter hanging and rattling in the winter wind well after the leaves have fallen.
In our early forests, red buds, along with dogwoods and ironwoods and sourwoods, would have found their place under the great canopy trees of oak and chestnut and hickory and tulip poplar, taking what sun they could get, and offering another level of habitat for animals and visual beauty for human visitors.
The red bud makes for an excellent garden tree. It’s leaf is sort of a rounded heart shape, about as wide as tall, three to five inches across. The tree tends toward a bushy appearance with multiple braches, though it can be pruned to one or two primary trunks. It’s a bit of a gangly tree, no two looking just alike, thus lending character to the suburban yard. It grows fairly slowly and reaches a maximum height of 20-30 feet at most.
We have a twenty five year old red bud in our front yard. It got beat up by a mower early in its life, and is kind of scraggly, but I love it none the less, as do the bees and butterflies.
To see a picture, click here.
Red buds with their splashes of light purple (especially when set along or near a wildly yellow forsythia) make me smile. This dash of purple is from one of our more humble native trees. Why it’s not called the purple bud is a mystery. Not even the bud itself is red, but some see the color as reddish purple, and perhaps growing in different soils it looks more red than purple. But around here both bud and flower are light purple, or at best purplish pink.
The red bud is actually a member of the bean family. As early spring flower turns to fruit, and as the summer progresses, thick dark bean pods about 3 inches long hang heavily from the red bud limbs, and providing another source of food for a few birds such as bobwhites and cardinals, and some mammals such as deer and squirrels, though the red bud fruit is generally not a food favorite. Bees however love the nectar of the flowers. The bean pods persist often well into winter hanging and rattling in the winter wind well after the leaves have fallen.
In our early forests, red buds, along with dogwoods and ironwoods and sourwoods, would have found their place under the great canopy trees of oak and chestnut and hickory and tulip poplar, taking what sun they could get, and offering another level of habitat for animals and visual beauty for human visitors.
The red bud makes for an excellent garden tree. It’s leaf is sort of a rounded heart shape, about as wide as tall, three to five inches across. The tree tends toward a bushy appearance with multiple braches, though it can be pruned to one or two primary trunks. It’s a bit of a gangly tree, no two looking just alike, thus lending character to the suburban yard. It grows fairly slowly and reaches a maximum height of 20-30 feet at most.
We have a twenty five year old red bud in our front yard. It got beat up by a mower early in its life, and is kind of scraggly, but I love it none the less, as do the bees and butterflies.
To see a picture, click here.
Younger and Thinner
I met someone the other day. She said, more or less, “Oh, you’re Joel Gillespie. I had pictured you as younger, and thinner.”
What do you say to that?
I’ve been laughing all week, every time I think of it.
What do you say to that?
I’ve been laughing all week, every time I think of it.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Blessed Are the Pure in Heart
Blessed Are the Pure in Heart: Matthew 5:8
from a Sermon presented on October 22, 2000
Friends, a day is coming, a day when we will stand bare before the judge of the earth, just us and our creator God. All life up to that point is prelude, introduction, preface.
We face at that time not just the issue of judgment in an impersonal sense - whether we will be “in” or “out”
We face the person of God – whether we will be drawn into his presence and see Him as He is, or be cast away from Him forever.
The opposites grow greater. We will either see God or we will be cast from his sight.
To see God is the supreme good of human life. It is the ultimate purpose for which we were created. By seeing God I mean being directly confronted and overwhelmed with His person, being bathed in His love and holiness, being recognized and known in the deepest sense by the One who made us and has been watching over us all through this life, in whose image we have been made. In seeing God will have come home.
The Scripture speaks of Moses as one whom the Lord knew face to face. Certainly Moses had an intimacy of fellowship with God that was quite out of the ordinary. Yet, even Moses longed to see more of God. He asked God, “show me your glory,” God told him “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name to you, but, you cannot see my face, for no one can see me and live.”
God was incredibly kind to Moses is revealing His goodness to him in the way He did. What a honor and blessing even to see this much of God! Likely none of us will experience in this life what Moses did there on that mountain.
But one day we will. It’s coming. One day when the curse is removed God will let us see his face, revealed in and through His Son:
Revelation 22:3-4 says, “No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.”
How is it that we will be able to see the Lord then? Because the curse will have been removed. There will be no vestige of sin. We will have new bodies and be like Jesus.
John puts it this way in his first epistle.
“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.”
In a blink of an eye we will be transformed, we will be like him and we will see him. We will have come home. We will be ourselves finally. The reality of who we are now is hidden, then we will appear with him in glory.
There is then a correlation between our seeing God and our being made finally and completely pure.
The sixth beatitude says that the ones favored by God (who are also poor in spirit, who mourn, who are meek, who hunger for righteousness, and who are merciful) are ones that are pure in heart, for they will see God.
What does it mean to be pure?
What does it mean to be pure in heart.
And does this say that we only see God if we can make ourselves pure?
The word translated as “pure” here has two general meanings.
The first and most obvious meaning is that of personal inward moral purity, holiness, righteousness.
The second and perhaps most accurate meaning is that of being single-minded of purpose, undivided, and true.
The first refers to our becoming like Jesus in every way.
The second refers to our following after Jesus in single minded devotion.
These obviously go together. To follow after Jesus means to become like Him.
The beatitude says we are to become pure in heart.
In the Bible the heart is the center of your total personality, the source of your focus and direction in life.
Purity of heart does not mean to contrast the heart with the head, feeling with thinking, being with doing, or intentions with actions. Purity of heart includes all of these – action, attitude, deed, sincerity, thinking, feeling, and willing.
In Jesus’ day this emphasis on purity of heart may have been heard as a contrast between inner moral purity and outward ceremonial purity, purity determined by observance of the Old Covenant purity laws regarding foods, contact with gentiles, dead bodies, etc.
Jesus taught that it is not what we eat and touch that makes us impure and unclean, but what comes forth from the heart – evil thoughts, murder, theft, slander, and such. These are what makes us unclean. The problem is inside.
Psalm 51:10 provides a perfect sense of Jesus’ meaning when David says “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
These are parallel statements and repeat a similar thought.
When David says “Create in me a clean heart,” he is asking God not merely to forgive him but to transform him inwardly. He knows that his sin with Uriah and Bathsheba flowed out of a heart which was impure and unclean, and he knows that if he is to be clean then God must make him clean.
When David says “Renew a steadfast spirit in me,” he is asking God to create within him a single-minded and unwavering devotion that will keep him on the right path.
The sixth beatitude says that those with such a heart will see God, and implies that only those with such a heart will see God.
So, we face the dilemma. To see God requires purity of heart. But we cannot make ourselves pure in heart? Is there any hope?
We will never be sufficiently free of the curse to see Him until we have a new body which is no longer prone to sin. Even with the present and abiding Holy Spirit we still in ourselves are not as pure as we must ultimately be to see God. The promised reward of seeing God assumes God’s intervention and work in completing our salvation. Until that time, while we remain in this body, we will in fact waver in our devotion; we are not and will not be utterly steadfast. Thus we will not see God now as we will then. Paul cried out, Who will rescue me from this body of death.” The answer, “Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ my Lord!”
But the blessing of the kingdom is not merely and only future. The kingdom of God has broken into the present.
In the beatitude Jesus is pronouncing blessed those who by God’s grace have heard the call of Jesus and responded to Him.
Congratulations to you who are and will steadfastly follow me – for you will see God! If you throw your lot in with me, if you will follow me single-mindedly and take what comes as a result then you will receive the reward of rewards - -you will see God!
Well, who are these people? To whom belongs the kingdom? Who will see God?
The poor in spirit who know and mourn over their sin and long for righteousness, these are the same who are pure in heart and who will see God.
Jesus says that as these poor in spirit look to Jesus, as they respond to Him and follow after Him and cling to Him – these are blessed, to these is the kingdom!
The pure in heart are those who believe in Jesus and His words, and who keep coming to Jesus in their need, who keep seeking from him forgiveness and comfort and rightness. The truly repentant are not perfectly pure, otherwise they wouldn’t be need to be repentant.
These who keep believing and keep repenting see God in two ways.
First, in believing in and seeing Jesus we are in fact seeing God.
Philip said to Jesus in the upper room, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
Paul put it this way: “For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
That is, as we have fellowship with the Lord Jesus and see and know Him we are seeing the glory of God.
Second, our fellowship with God through Jesus by the Spirit even now in this body opens up to us the reality of God’s presence. Through the work of Jesus we have real fellowship with God. The Holy Spirit who works faith in us and transforms us is Himself the Lord of Glory!
Third, in continuing to repent and believe, in continuing to follow after Jesus, we are being transformed into his likeness, and in this transformation more able by faith to see God.
It is true that God sometimes removes His presence from even his most obedient and passionate saints. They experience a dark night of the soul as their faith is tested in the crucible of suffering.
But generally there is a correspondence between our purity – both in the sense of our inner moral purity and our single-mindedness of purpose, and the degree to which we know the blessing of seeing God.
Entanglement in sin obscures our view. Lack of devotion to the word of God dims our sight. The pursuit of earthy treasure takes our sight off the Lord. Anger and bitterness cloud our eyes. Ingratitude pushes us far from Jesus.
When we realize this is true we will realize both that we have grieved the Lord and that we have wasted out purpose, and we will not feel great. We may feel downright terrible, even, well, pretty poor, pretty poor in spirit. And we will cry out to God as David did
Create in me a clean heart oh God.
Renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Let us pray
We face at that time not just the issue of judgment in an impersonal sense - whether we will be “in” or “out”
We face the person of God – whether we will be drawn into his presence and see Him as He is, or be cast away from Him forever.
The opposites grow greater. We will either see God or we will be cast from his sight.
To see God is the supreme good of human life. It is the ultimate purpose for which we were created. By seeing God I mean being directly confronted and overwhelmed with His person, being bathed in His love and holiness, being recognized and known in the deepest sense by the One who made us and has been watching over us all through this life, in whose image we have been made. In seeing God will have come home.
The Scripture speaks of Moses as one whom the Lord knew face to face. Certainly Moses had an intimacy of fellowship with God that was quite out of the ordinary. Yet, even Moses longed to see more of God. He asked God, “show me your glory,” God told him “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name to you, but, you cannot see my face, for no one can see me and live.”
God was incredibly kind to Moses is revealing His goodness to him in the way He did. What a honor and blessing even to see this much of God! Likely none of us will experience in this life what Moses did there on that mountain.
But one day we will. It’s coming. One day when the curse is removed God will let us see his face, revealed in and through His Son:
Revelation 22:3-4 says, “No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.”
How is it that we will be able to see the Lord then? Because the curse will have been removed. There will be no vestige of sin. We will have new bodies and be like Jesus.
John puts it this way in his first epistle.
“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.”
In a blink of an eye we will be transformed, we will be like him and we will see him. We will have come home. We will be ourselves finally. The reality of who we are now is hidden, then we will appear with him in glory.
There is then a correlation between our seeing God and our being made finally and completely pure.
The sixth beatitude says that the ones favored by God (who are also poor in spirit, who mourn, who are meek, who hunger for righteousness, and who are merciful) are ones that are pure in heart, for they will see God.
What does it mean to be pure?
What does it mean to be pure in heart.
And does this say that we only see God if we can make ourselves pure?
The word translated as “pure” here has two general meanings.
The first and most obvious meaning is that of personal inward moral purity, holiness, righteousness.
The second and perhaps most accurate meaning is that of being single-minded of purpose, undivided, and true.
The first refers to our becoming like Jesus in every way.
The second refers to our following after Jesus in single minded devotion.
These obviously go together. To follow after Jesus means to become like Him.
The beatitude says we are to become pure in heart.
In the Bible the heart is the center of your total personality, the source of your focus and direction in life.
Purity of heart does not mean to contrast the heart with the head, feeling with thinking, being with doing, or intentions with actions. Purity of heart includes all of these – action, attitude, deed, sincerity, thinking, feeling, and willing.
In Jesus’ day this emphasis on purity of heart may have been heard as a contrast between inner moral purity and outward ceremonial purity, purity determined by observance of the Old Covenant purity laws regarding foods, contact with gentiles, dead bodies, etc.
Jesus taught that it is not what we eat and touch that makes us impure and unclean, but what comes forth from the heart – evil thoughts, murder, theft, slander, and such. These are what makes us unclean. The problem is inside.
Psalm 51:10 provides a perfect sense of Jesus’ meaning when David says “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
These are parallel statements and repeat a similar thought.
When David says “Create in me a clean heart,” he is asking God not merely to forgive him but to transform him inwardly. He knows that his sin with Uriah and Bathsheba flowed out of a heart which was impure and unclean, and he knows that if he is to be clean then God must make him clean.
When David says “Renew a steadfast spirit in me,” he is asking God to create within him a single-minded and unwavering devotion that will keep him on the right path.
The sixth beatitude says that those with such a heart will see God, and implies that only those with such a heart will see God.
So, we face the dilemma. To see God requires purity of heart. But we cannot make ourselves pure in heart? Is there any hope?
We will never be sufficiently free of the curse to see Him until we have a new body which is no longer prone to sin. Even with the present and abiding Holy Spirit we still in ourselves are not as pure as we must ultimately be to see God. The promised reward of seeing God assumes God’s intervention and work in completing our salvation. Until that time, while we remain in this body, we will in fact waver in our devotion; we are not and will not be utterly steadfast. Thus we will not see God now as we will then. Paul cried out, Who will rescue me from this body of death.” The answer, “Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ my Lord!”
But the blessing of the kingdom is not merely and only future. The kingdom of God has broken into the present.
In the beatitude Jesus is pronouncing blessed those who by God’s grace have heard the call of Jesus and responded to Him.
Congratulations to you who are and will steadfastly follow me – for you will see God! If you throw your lot in with me, if you will follow me single-mindedly and take what comes as a result then you will receive the reward of rewards - -you will see God!
Well, who are these people? To whom belongs the kingdom? Who will see God?
The poor in spirit who know and mourn over their sin and long for righteousness, these are the same who are pure in heart and who will see God.
Jesus says that as these poor in spirit look to Jesus, as they respond to Him and follow after Him and cling to Him – these are blessed, to these is the kingdom!
The pure in heart are those who believe in Jesus and His words, and who keep coming to Jesus in their need, who keep seeking from him forgiveness and comfort and rightness. The truly repentant are not perfectly pure, otherwise they wouldn’t be need to be repentant.
These who keep believing and keep repenting see God in two ways.
First, in believing in and seeing Jesus we are in fact seeing God.
Philip said to Jesus in the upper room, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
Paul put it this way: “For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
That is, as we have fellowship with the Lord Jesus and see and know Him we are seeing the glory of God.
Second, our fellowship with God through Jesus by the Spirit even now in this body opens up to us the reality of God’s presence. Through the work of Jesus we have real fellowship with God. The Holy Spirit who works faith in us and transforms us is Himself the Lord of Glory!
Third, in continuing to repent and believe, in continuing to follow after Jesus, we are being transformed into his likeness, and in this transformation more able by faith to see God.
It is true that God sometimes removes His presence from even his most obedient and passionate saints. They experience a dark night of the soul as their faith is tested in the crucible of suffering.
But generally there is a correspondence between our purity – both in the sense of our inner moral purity and our single-mindedness of purpose, and the degree to which we know the blessing of seeing God.
Entanglement in sin obscures our view. Lack of devotion to the word of God dims our sight. The pursuit of earthy treasure takes our sight off the Lord. Anger and bitterness cloud our eyes. Ingratitude pushes us far from Jesus.
When we realize this is true we will realize both that we have grieved the Lord and that we have wasted out purpose, and we will not feel great. We may feel downright terrible, even, well, pretty poor, pretty poor in spirit. And we will cry out to God as David did
Create in me a clean heart oh God.
Renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Let us pray
On Mexicans and Frenchmen
I have been interested in the last few days about the massive demonstrations in France and here in the US. There are contrasts that interest me greatly.
It seems that in France that the youth have an incredible sense of entitlement. Maybe most everybody does.
On our front, we’re talking about protections and reasonable policies towards folks who generally don’t have that sense of entitlement, but who come here and work very hard. I realize I don’t understand what it may be like in border communities where local services are stretched to the breaking point by huge numbers of immigrants.
But, what I have seen, anecdotally, in immigrants from Mexico and other Central American places (discounting the drug network) is impressive. I see hard work. I see a passion and desire for a better life. I see a responsibility to help those back home.
Last year we have a plumbing disaster and ended up replacing the carpet in our house – long story. We bought the carpet through a local company, and the installers were hired out, and they were Mexican. I don’t know if legal or illegal. We don’t have a big house but we have a lot of stuff in it, and all that had to be moved of course, the carpet laid, and everything moved back. It was a huge job.
A crew of three came, an older man and two younger fellows about 20ish. They worked non stop from 8:30 Am to 8:30 PM. They did the whole job. Hardly took breaks. Don’t even know if they ate. They were nice and respectful, didn’t complain, and the younger guys were very respectful of the older, did what he asked, and he also taught them different things. It could not have been better. My response was, wow, are there many 20 year old kids I know who would work that hard?
I called the carpet company to find out how they were paid, and they told me, and it wasn’t much. It was legal and all, just not very much per hour, so I gave them a very big tip.
The thing with me is that I see people who are hungry to work hard, willing to work up, and desirous of building a better life. As far as I can see I think that is good for our community and good for our country, not that I desire to see them remain underpaid, because I don’t. But if you’re going to work harder and strive for better things, then come on over. That’s how I look at it. And if some college kid or anyone really can’t get a job because he won’t work hard, so be it.
I mean, the situation could not be more different than what is going on in France. If those French youth had been laying our carpet, they would probably have demanded twice the pay, meals provided, and no longer than a six hour work day.
This good people from Mexico and other countries are one reason we won’t go the way of Western Europe.
A for me, having so many Mexican and Central American neighbors has made me desire to learn Spanish. That is now life goal # 4.
So, let’s do right by these people, and be thankful for what they bring our way, in work, and in culture.
Joel
It seems that in France that the youth have an incredible sense of entitlement. Maybe most everybody does.
On our front, we’re talking about protections and reasonable policies towards folks who generally don’t have that sense of entitlement, but who come here and work very hard. I realize I don’t understand what it may be like in border communities where local services are stretched to the breaking point by huge numbers of immigrants.
But, what I have seen, anecdotally, in immigrants from Mexico and other Central American places (discounting the drug network) is impressive. I see hard work. I see a passion and desire for a better life. I see a responsibility to help those back home.
Last year we have a plumbing disaster and ended up replacing the carpet in our house – long story. We bought the carpet through a local company, and the installers were hired out, and they were Mexican. I don’t know if legal or illegal. We don’t have a big house but we have a lot of stuff in it, and all that had to be moved of course, the carpet laid, and everything moved back. It was a huge job.
A crew of three came, an older man and two younger fellows about 20ish. They worked non stop from 8:30 Am to 8:30 PM. They did the whole job. Hardly took breaks. Don’t even know if they ate. They were nice and respectful, didn’t complain, and the younger guys were very respectful of the older, did what he asked, and he also taught them different things. It could not have been better. My response was, wow, are there many 20 year old kids I know who would work that hard?
I called the carpet company to find out how they were paid, and they told me, and it wasn’t much. It was legal and all, just not very much per hour, so I gave them a very big tip.
The thing with me is that I see people who are hungry to work hard, willing to work up, and desirous of building a better life. As far as I can see I think that is good for our community and good for our country, not that I desire to see them remain underpaid, because I don’t. But if you’re going to work harder and strive for better things, then come on over. That’s how I look at it. And if some college kid or anyone really can’t get a job because he won’t work hard, so be it.
I mean, the situation could not be more different than what is going on in France. If those French youth had been laying our carpet, they would probably have demanded twice the pay, meals provided, and no longer than a six hour work day.
This good people from Mexico and other countries are one reason we won’t go the way of Western Europe.
A for me, having so many Mexican and Central American neighbors has made me desire to learn Spanish. That is now life goal # 4.
So, let’s do right by these people, and be thankful for what they bring our way, in work, and in culture.
Joel
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Favorite Love Songs
OK, so someone pointed out the other day that I did not have a list for my favorite love songs. I scanned my memory driving around yesterday and then started a list below. I have in mind somewhat more innocent love songs, not really songs about broken hearts, lost love, or unfulfilled longing (that is another longer more interesting list), and not really songs about getting it on in the night (So, Night Moves won’t be on the list, nor Crazy on You, [but maybe Moondance? Hmmm.]). So, here is a beginning. I’ll add and subtract a few and whittle it down to 25. So, what am I forgetting?
Colour My World by Chicago
Fly Me to the Moon by Tony Bennett
Can’t Help Falling in Love by Elvis Presley
Beautiful by Gordon Lightfoot
This Girl’s In Love by Dionne Warwick
And the Night Stood Still by Dion
Your Song by Elton John
Moondance by Van Morrison
Lady by Kenny Rogers
Longer by Dan Fogelberg
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by Roberta Flack or Johnny Cash
Eight Days a Week by the Beatles
Perhaps Love by John Denver and Placido Domingo
The Wedding Song by Paul Stookey
I Honestly Love You by Olivia Newton John
Love, Reign O’er Me by The Who
Crescent Moon by Bill Mallonee
Something in the Way She Moves by James Taylor
I’ll Have to Say I Love You In a Song by Jim Croce
Looking into You by Jackson Browne
Michelle by the Beatles
Crystal by Fleetwood Mac
To Know Him Is to Love Him by Trio
Always on My Mind by Willie Nelson
Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton
Three Times a Lady by Lionel Richie
Pride and Joy by Stevie Ray Vaughan
Some Kind of Wonderful by Grand Funk
Song For a Winter’s Night by Gordon Lightfoot
You Make Loving Fun by Fleetwood Mac
Something by The Beatles
Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkle
And I Love Her by the Beatles
Colour My World by Chicago
Fly Me to the Moon by Tony Bennett
Can’t Help Falling in Love by Elvis Presley
Beautiful by Gordon Lightfoot
This Girl’s In Love by Dionne Warwick
And the Night Stood Still by Dion
Your Song by Elton John
Moondance by Van Morrison
Lady by Kenny Rogers
Longer by Dan Fogelberg
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by Roberta Flack or Johnny Cash
Eight Days a Week by the Beatles
Perhaps Love by John Denver and Placido Domingo
The Wedding Song by Paul Stookey
I Honestly Love You by Olivia Newton John
Love, Reign O’er Me by The Who
Crescent Moon by Bill Mallonee
Something in the Way She Moves by James Taylor
I’ll Have to Say I Love You In a Song by Jim Croce
Looking into You by Jackson Browne
Michelle by the Beatles
Crystal by Fleetwood Mac
To Know Him Is to Love Him by Trio
Always on My Mind by Willie Nelson
Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton
Three Times a Lady by Lionel Richie
Pride and Joy by Stevie Ray Vaughan
Some Kind of Wonderful by Grand Funk
Song For a Winter’s Night by Gordon Lightfoot
You Make Loving Fun by Fleetwood Mac
Something by The Beatles
Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkle
And I Love Her by the Beatles
Monday, March 27, 2006
Our School District. Immigration. Iraq. Battleground and Horse Pen Creek. Books.
It’s been a little over a month since I did any serious blogging. The break was nice. Life has been busy. Coming back into the blogging world has been a shock – I forgot how rough and tumble it was out there. I guess I am a wus.
So, I have a new blog site -- http://joelgillespie.blogspot.com/. It is being interwoven with a new web site – www.joelgillespie.com. I am going to keep posting at my MSN Spaces site and work to build up the look and content of the web site and blog site as time goes on.
What’s on my mind today?
Our school district. Immigration. Iraq. Battleground and Horse Pen Creek. Books.
1. I don’t think our children are best served by accepting the fact that we are a mid level district and that Superintendents will naturally use us as a stepping stone to better and bigger districts. That tempts them too much to lead based on their own resume building. I don’t think that is best for our kids. I have pasted comments below I made on Patrick Eakes site.
2. I like President Bush’s position on Immigration, as exhibited in his call for a civil immigration debate. Conservatives would do well not to vilify the “aliens and strangers” amongst us. And they better keep out of the calling many churches have to minister to “aliens and strangers” for they will lose that battle, and lose many of their evangelical base. I think we need an Immigration policy that we can enforce and which honors the incredible contribution immigrants continue to make to our culture and economy. OK, I do think the border needs to be shored up, but the felony thing is too much.
3. I am maybe one of the 1-2 people who has changed from being so so on Iraq to more supportive of our efforts there. I don’t think I’ll be getting any kudos for my intellectual courage.
4. Does anyone have thoughts on the moonscape at Battleground and Horse Pen Creek. That developments will forever stand as a monument to our local government’s lack of courage and will as regards Open Space, Water Shed Protection, Reasonable Planning, and Good Sense. Is it possible for our leaders to say “no” to a developer?
5. I took the bait and joined Quality Paperback Books. Got a whole pile of books. Am reading (I read several books at a time, a little here, a little there) a most fascinating book entitled “Animals in Translation” by Temple Grandin. It offer incredibly interesting insight into the animal mind (and emotion) by an autistic woman. I hope to write a full review when I’m done. And I am reading Stephen King’s “Cell.” Not sure what I think of that yet. I haven’t read a Stephen King book in 25 years.
Joel
As shared on Patrick Eakes site:
Patrick,
I am with you on this. Here are a few thoughts and observations.
1. It seems to me from anecdotal evidence that teacher morale has plummeted in the last 2-3 years under all the mandated curriculum issues and whatnot. That is my biggest concern of all. I believe that in the end the teacher is the most important person in the whole education equation. What I hear from teachers in many schools is mostly very negative regarding Terry Grier. When I taught high school (for five years) there was not such a mindset about our Superintendent, so I don't think it's inherent to the teaching job to feel that way.
2. I would like to know if anyone knows what has been the change in both actual and percentage amounts of the money spent on district office staffing.
3. It seems again to me that under Grier there is more Central Office control of almost everything. Is that correct, and if so, is it best?4. What role should the present or a future school board play, and what responsibility do they share for the failings (as well as the successes). It seems to me that the Superintendent has had almost a free hand, but I am sure there is much I don't know.
5. It has seemed that many decisions have been made just to make Grier or our county district look good, like the decision to push and even in some cases force many students into AP classes. This decision seems only geared toward upping numbers. My concern is are decisions like this part of "resume building." That worries me. I don't think we have to accept a ladder climbing Superintendent. If that's what we get the person in that role ultimately is using our system for his benefit rather than really loving, embracing, and seeking good for our schools and our students.
6. How much of the hugely problematic "teaching to the test" and forced curriculum conformity has resulted from No Child Left Behind. This seems to be one of the issues that has torn most at the motivation and joy of teachers. Are we really dependent upon the federal money that requires such conformity and teaching to tests? Have Grier's hands been tied on this?
7. Well, now that word is out he is a lame duck. I think we should start searching. Maybe there is a local person who would do a great job and who would not be using us as a stepping stone to bigger and greater jobs.
All for now.
Joel
So, I have a new blog site -- http://joelgillespie.blogspot.com/. It is being interwoven with a new web site – www.joelgillespie.com. I am going to keep posting at my MSN Spaces site and work to build up the look and content of the web site and blog site as time goes on.
What’s on my mind today?
Our school district. Immigration. Iraq. Battleground and Horse Pen Creek. Books.
1. I don’t think our children are best served by accepting the fact that we are a mid level district and that Superintendents will naturally use us as a stepping stone to better and bigger districts. That tempts them too much to lead based on their own resume building. I don’t think that is best for our kids. I have pasted comments below I made on Patrick Eakes site.
2. I like President Bush’s position on Immigration, as exhibited in his call for a civil immigration debate. Conservatives would do well not to vilify the “aliens and strangers” amongst us. And they better keep out of the calling many churches have to minister to “aliens and strangers” for they will lose that battle, and lose many of their evangelical base. I think we need an Immigration policy that we can enforce and which honors the incredible contribution immigrants continue to make to our culture and economy. OK, I do think the border needs to be shored up, but the felony thing is too much.
3. I am maybe one of the 1-2 people who has changed from being so so on Iraq to more supportive of our efforts there. I don’t think I’ll be getting any kudos for my intellectual courage.
4. Does anyone have thoughts on the moonscape at Battleground and Horse Pen Creek. That developments will forever stand as a monument to our local government’s lack of courage and will as regards Open Space, Water Shed Protection, Reasonable Planning, and Good Sense. Is it possible for our leaders to say “no” to a developer?
5. I took the bait and joined Quality Paperback Books. Got a whole pile of books. Am reading (I read several books at a time, a little here, a little there) a most fascinating book entitled “Animals in Translation” by Temple Grandin. It offer incredibly interesting insight into the animal mind (and emotion) by an autistic woman. I hope to write a full review when I’m done. And I am reading Stephen King’s “Cell.” Not sure what I think of that yet. I haven’t read a Stephen King book in 25 years.
Joel
As shared on Patrick Eakes site:
Patrick,
I am with you on this. Here are a few thoughts and observations.
1. It seems to me from anecdotal evidence that teacher morale has plummeted in the last 2-3 years under all the mandated curriculum issues and whatnot. That is my biggest concern of all. I believe that in the end the teacher is the most important person in the whole education equation. What I hear from teachers in many schools is mostly very negative regarding Terry Grier. When I taught high school (for five years) there was not such a mindset about our Superintendent, so I don't think it's inherent to the teaching job to feel that way.
2. I would like to know if anyone knows what has been the change in both actual and percentage amounts of the money spent on district office staffing.
3. It seems again to me that under Grier there is more Central Office control of almost everything. Is that correct, and if so, is it best?4. What role should the present or a future school board play, and what responsibility do they share for the failings (as well as the successes). It seems to me that the Superintendent has had almost a free hand, but I am sure there is much I don't know.
5. It has seemed that many decisions have been made just to make Grier or our county district look good, like the decision to push and even in some cases force many students into AP classes. This decision seems only geared toward upping numbers. My concern is are decisions like this part of "resume building." That worries me. I don't think we have to accept a ladder climbing Superintendent. If that's what we get the person in that role ultimately is using our system for his benefit rather than really loving, embracing, and seeking good for our schools and our students.
6. How much of the hugely problematic "teaching to the test" and forced curriculum conformity has resulted from No Child Left Behind. This seems to be one of the issues that has torn most at the motivation and joy of teachers. Are we really dependent upon the federal money that requires such conformity and teaching to tests? Have Grier's hands been tied on this?
7. Well, now that word is out he is a lame duck. I think we should start searching. Maybe there is a local person who would do a great job and who would not be using us as a stepping stone to bigger and greater jobs.
All for now.
Joel
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