Weekly Links!

SOME INTERESTING LINKS FOR YOUR SUNDAY AFTERNOON, SET OUT IN MY USUAL CATEGORIES OF FAITH, FAMILY, AND FICTION.

Faith 

-"The Ruthless Love of Christ": a sermon from fantasy author Lars Walker (with, I should add, a really good take on Martha and Mary).


-"The Cracks Begin at the Bottom" - a snippet:

Lately I’ve found myself pondering unity in the local church and considering that cracks in the unity of a church often begin at the bottom. They often begin at the foundation and work their way up to the roof. What I mean is that disunity often begins with the membership and spreads toward the leadership rather than beginning with the leadership and spreading toward the membership. This is not always the case, of course, but often it is.

-"Mere Fidelity: On Bible Designs, with J. Mark Bertrand": I enjoyed this episode a lot. It's interesting to think about how design and format influences our reading experience, especially when it comes to scripture. 

Family 

-"The High and Holy Calling of Being a Wife": This is by the excellent Frederica Mathewes-Green and definitely falls into that category of "wise advice from someone who's ahead of you on the path."  It's a bit rambling (I think it's notes from a live talk, so that makes sense), but there's lots of good stuff in there.

Fiction 

-"The Compromise": This is a rather beautiful short story that recently appeared in Daily Science Fiction.

-"Better Than Bones and Dust": This is another one from Daily Sci Fi (they've been hitting it out of the park recently, IMHO), and it is a bit grim, but it's super-short, well-constructed, and the author absolutely nailed the ending. A good one to read just for the craft of it.


I hope the remainder of your weekend is restful and good!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Maybe you aren't called to be someone amazing

Maybe you aren't called to be Joshua the son of Nun, bringing the people into the Promised Land.

Maybe you aren't called to be someone amazing.

I know, I know, we're all "special". All amazing. All wonderful. I guess that's true, in some ways.

But we're not all doers of great and memorable deeds. And that's fine: we're called to be faithful, not famous.

So here's an encouragement for the unfamous faithful: who comes to mind when you think of "Joshua" from the Bible? Joshua the son of Nun, right? Joshua who fit the battle of Jericho. Joshua, the heir of Moses' leadership.


But he wasn't the only Joshua.

Maybe you aren't amazing. Maybe you aren't called to be Joshua the son of Nun.

Maybe you are Joshua the son of Jehozadak, who we read about in Haggai, working on a temple that is "as nothing" compared to the former one.

Maybe you are one of God's people living in the degenerate days, when no one is doing great deeds. You're just, y'know ... doing the deeds that are to hand.

But hear God's call to Joshua the son of Jehozadak:

Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts...

You may not be called to great deeds in great times.

You are still called to be faithful.

"Work, for I am with you..."

And that lesser temple? the one Joshua the son of Jehozadek served in? the one that people looked at, and thought it was "as nothing"?


It was the one the Greater Joshua came to: Jesus, the Son of God Himself.

"But the Lord you seek will suddenly come to his temple . . ."



Maybe you are not anyone great, in any great time, doing any great deed.

But if he calls you to it, you can still prepare the way of the Lord.



Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Asking Jesus to Leave

If you're visiting my blog today because you found me via The Lent Project, welcome! Take a look around and make yourself at home. :)


And if you're one of my regular readers, please come and stop by The Lent Project today! I have a devotional up about Jesus' healing of the demon-possessed man ... though I take it a bit of a different direction. Here's how it starts:

This is the story about the people who asked Jesus to leave. 

Yes, it is also the story about the horde of demons infesting one naked and helpless man. It’s also the story about the herd of pigs streaming down the cliff to their deaths. The story about the maniacal strength of the fallen angels as they used their host to break iron shackles, to scream their filthiness to the skies, to dance in the dark around the mountains and the tombs, to terrorize everyone who came near them.

It is that story. 

But it is also the story about the people who asked Jesus to leave.

Please head over to The Lent Project to read the rest, and to enjoy and ponder the art and music that accompanies the devotional. (Biola's CCCA does such an amazing job putting together the readings, art, and music for this every year; it's an honor to get to take part in such a beautiful and collaborative piece of work.)


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

A God Who Knows Grief

I'm honored today to be guest posting over at Sarah Ruut's blog. Here's a snippet:

Private grief is sometimes what we want. 

It's not always what we need. 

And it's never our only choice. Why? Because we serve a Lord who is familiar with suffering...

Please go read the rest over at Sarah's beautiful website! I hope it offers you a bit of encouragement for your day.


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

the second Joshua

In my listening through the book of Numbers, I'm almost to the end. I've reached the part where the Lord has told Moses that he's about to die. And Moses petitions the Lord to give the people of Isreal another leader, in his place, "that they be not as sheep which have no shepherd."

In answer to Moses' plea, the Lord appoints Joshua, whose name means God saves.


And as I listed to that, I remembered the gospel's observation about the second Joshua, whose name also meant God saves, who looked upon the crowd of Israelites in front of them, and "He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."


The first Joshua took God's people, tutored under the law of Moses, and led them into the promised land.

The second Joshua took God's people, harassed and helpless under the law of Moses, which had been twisted and misunderstood under the weight of years and sin, and led them into redemption, and peace, and eternal life.


"You shall call His name Jesus" the angel said - Jesus, the Greek version of Joshua - "for He will save His people from their sins."



Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Weekly Links: Game of Thrones, the Trinity, and Macbeth!

"Why Is that Woman Naked?: Sources of Objectification in the Game of Thrones":

Martin’s real women problem has much deeper roots. For most of the female characters in Game of Thrones, their value resides, without question, in their sexuality. 

"'Game of Thrones' and Its Caricature of Faith":

As a novel, the problem with Martin’s reductionist criticism of religion is not that it’s silly (although it certainly is). The problem is that his characters, taken as a whole, become a bit unrealistic, lacking a facet that was pretty common for many people in the Middle Ages, namely: religious beliefs that were both genuine and not reducible to violent fundamentalism.

"Why I Am Opposed to Gay Marriage": I said earlier this week (on Facebook) that I thought a better name for this (10,000 word!) article might be "Why I Am For Marriage, Full Stop". This is beautiful, and articles on this topic are rarely beautiful. But this one is. Read on for some really good & lovely thought about how creation was set up from the beginning. Much more a positive construction than a negative tearing-down.  Worth the time it takes to read (or even, to re-read).


"Unperplexed About the Atonement": Humble-brag: I get to go to church with this guy (and better yet, with his lovely wife):

Johnson opens the book with the story of a pastor asking him, “which theory of the atonement do you believe in?” Johnson’s response: “All of them!” Something has gone wrong when the question “which theory” somehow becomes the main, or the only, question about atonement. Johnson is concerned to make that question unaskable, to “resist the search for a controlling category” that would cover all theologizing about the atonement. “There are better ways to engage the doctrine,” he says . . .

And, in keeping with the theme of this blog, here's a GREAT sermon for Trinity Sunday (celebrated last week).

And, if you need yet more Trinity goodness (and seriously, we all do), here's some more:




Finally, "Macbeth" is one of the scariest of Shakespeare's plays, and this trailer makes me hope that this movie actually captured the horror of it (i.e., the guy &; his wife are tempted by devils, they GIVE IN, and terrible things happen, and then Macduff comes 'round and wreaks bloody, righteous vengence):





I love it when every movie still looks like a painting.



Have a great weekend!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Luke 10: Passive Questions and Active Questions in the story of the Good Samaritan

Jacopo Bassano, The Good Samaritan, via Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

In Luke 10, we read the story of the Good Samaritan. And though I've heard this story over and over again in my life, this last time I went through it, I noticed something new.

I noticed that the question the lawyer asks Jesus ("Who is my neighbor?") is not quite the same question that Jesus asks back at the end of the parable ("Who was a neighbor?", or, "which of these . . . proved to be a neighbor . . .?")

The Lawyer's Question
The lawyer asks a question that requires no action on his part, if that makes sense. He's not asking who he is, he's asking who other people are to him.

Jesus' Question
But - and I'd never quite noticed this before - Jesus doesn't answer his question. Not exactly. Jesus doesn't tell him, exactly, who his neighbor is.

Jesus tells him about a man choosing to be a neighbor.

In other words, the lawyer asks, "How do I know which people are my neighbors?"

And Jesus says, "By what fruit is a  neighbor known?"


The Command, and it's not just for the lawyer, but also for us . . .
And then, of course, "Go thou, and do likewise."


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

God's Judgment: a short observation

from wikimedia commons, Christ the King icon, from St. Catherine's monastery, Mt. Sinai, PD:old.

It strikes me, on reading the Lord’s statement to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion,” that the correct answer is, “Yes, Lord, and have mercy on me.”


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

The Unexpected

This is a guest blog by Ann Basil*, a law enforcement officer who works in Southern California.       

      No one expected the earthquake. It came unannounced and, without discretion, scattered everything violently. The quake came when I was not home. I return hours later to broken glass and tiles on the floor, the contents of cupboards and shelves strewn about, cracked walls, and a garage door that no longer functioned. Had I been told an earthquake was coming? Well … sure, look where I live. But I was not expecting it. I had not prepared, not really. A few days later I stacked my surviving bowls on the cupboard shelf and wondered, would these make it through the next quake?

            Two weeks later I found myself staring contemplatively downrange at handgun targets some 35 yards away. On my right was a tall, buff, swat operator. We were in training, and the current afternoon’s topic was combat shooting (how to shoot at bad guys who are shooting back). The week before, this same swat guy had dangled out of a helicopter, trying to get a shot at a man who felt the need to wandering around a quiet neighborhood, threatening people with his shotgun. The man had been taken into custody. “Yup,” the swat guy spit some of his chew on the ground, “it’s coming.”

            I squinted at the pieces of paper that represented murderers. “I just hope I’m there when it does happen. I would rather have it be me than one of my partners who can’t shoot.”

            The swat guy gently shaped his next wad of tobacco leaves and nestled them lovingly in his lower gum line, “That’s exactly how I feel. And it’s coming. There is some crazy person out there who is going to try and shoot up our people. But when he does, I am going to be ready. I’m going to get him.” We went through a few more hours of practicing cover fire and moving in leapfrog fashion down the range, killing paper bad guys as we went. We would be ready.

            The next Monday morning found me frowning as I read my Bible, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some as in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching … In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.” Before, to me, Hebrews had always read like a happy, “running with perseverance the race,” sort of read. Reading it today, however, worried my heart. My mind flashed back to the glass shattered on my floor, and the faith the swat guy had in the crazies that was so strong that he dedicated his life to training for that one day. And here, Jesus was coming, like a thief in the night. In just a little while. With no delay.

            My heart, like my house and my trigger finger, was not ready. Sure, I am a Christian. Sure, I love Jesus. Sure, I’ve been baptized. But I surely am not preparing for Jesus’ return as if it were real. I am not living daily as if I were about to be judged by the Almighty. There are shelved items in my heart that will fall and smash. There are reactions that I still need to practice and program into my heart so that they are automatic responses. There are strategies for living in a faithful manner that I have not mapped out and implemented. The coming of Christ, or the end of my life, will come without my preapproval. But it will come. I need to start living faithfully in expectation of this unexpected.

*a pseudonym.

Weekend Links: Facepalm Jesus, purity, talking about race, and more!

Here's some reading for your weekend!

"Coffee with Facepalm Jesus Calling":

An earlier generation asked What Would Jesus Do? But these days, people are increasingly comfortable with skipping the hypothetical, shifting out of the subjunctive, and just telling us What Jesus Would Say, in their opinions. If he were really here, that is: if he were talking, if he were blogging, or meme-ing, or cartooning, or writing devotionals.

"Let the Battle for Purity Begin":

As a young priest in the 1970s, I served for a decade in campus ministry settings. In those years, the first fruits of the sexual revolution were already apparent. Pope Francis’s image of the Church as a “field hospital” in the midst of such wreckage would describe it well.

"On Being White (And Talking About It) – Part 1":

I have seen my students do one of two things when confronted with a glaring disparity in the real world to their beliefs about human equality – they either (1) become very uncomfortable and frustrated that their parents didn’t teach them the truth, or (2) become very self-righteous, sure that equality is real, and that anyone experiencing inequality must be morally at fault for their own situation.

And Part II can be found here.

"Murder in Los Angeles":

The Homicide Report addresses two questions every newspaper covering a major metropolis should answer: who was killed last night, and why? But most newspapers don’t do this because the logic of most newsrooms is that not all murders are sexy, grisly, or surprising enough to be written about. The Homicide Report operates on the inverse principal: Every murder gets a story because murder is inherently worthy of our attention

"Today Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath, Died (1711)": I'm linking to this one because it contains the full text of Bishop Ken's sublime "Evening Hymn". I've long loved the version in our hymnal, and I was delighted to learn that not only does it have more verses, but that there's a matching "Morning Hymn" to go with it!

"What I’m learning about choice and gratitude from not skipping songs on my iPod":

Not having a choice about which song I listen to makes me calculate finding pleasure in songs differently. Instead of actively working to perfectly assemble the music so that it will make me happy, I derive happiness from whatever is in front of me. The switch in mindsets in the same switch you make when you go from being a shopper making a purchase to being a recipient receiving a gift. One involves feeling powerful, deciding which among a variety of items will best please you; the other involves receptivity, seeking what is good in whatever you have been given.

Quoting Deuteronomy to the Devil

Temptation of Christ, by  Immenraet. 1663. Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.  

It's pretty well-known that when the Devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus answered him by quoting exclusively out of the book of Deuteronomy.

Which was my heads-up that I ought to start paying more attention to Deuteronomy.

So, when Deuteronomy came around in the readings again this year, just before Lent, I tried to pay attention. I listened to Deuteronomy on audiobook, with my browser open to Bible Gateway, so I could quickly look up any passages that caught my attention, keeping them tabbed for later study.

Here are a couple of passages that did catch - and hold - my attention:

A prophet from among your brethren:

"The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him. This is according to all that you asked of the Lord your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, let me not see this great fire anymore, or I will die.’ The Lord said to me, ‘They have spoken well. I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command." - Deuteronomy 18:15-18

This, of course, is Moses, speaking to the people of Israel, reminding them of the time that they begged the Lord not to speak with them. Sounds weird to our ears, right? Begging not to hear from the Lord?

But: "They have spoken well," says the Lord. What? Sounds so strange to me. But look at what follows, "I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put my words in his mouth . . ."

This is why it sounds strange. Because we live in these latter days, after the incarnation of Christ, in the days when we may approach God, may truly call him Father. Jesus, a prophet from among us. Jesus, God become man.

God made a way for us to be able to bear to hear Him.

Pure mercy and grace.

Rejoice in all that you put your hand unto:

There also you and your households shall eat before the Lord your God, and rejoice in all your undertakings in which the Lord your God has blessed you.  -Deuteronomy 12:7 

I have nothing profound to say here. It just struck me as beautiful and kind that part of the prescribed worship for God's people was to spend some time feasting before Him and rejoicing in the good work He'd given them to do, and the richness that had come out of that work, because of God's blessing it.

He shall read therein all the days of his life:

“Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel." -Deuteronomy 17:18-20

Here is a mandate for daily devotions if I have ever heard one. If the king of Israel was supposed to keep the Law by him and read it every day that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, shouldn't we, who are so blessed as to have copy after copy in our homes? Rich as kings, we are. We ought to act like kings, too, and study that we not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left.


So that's what I found on my read-through this time. What's your favorite part of Deuteronomy?

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

p.s. I stole the title for this post from Rich Mullins.

Weekend Links - wine, vaccines, and more!

Interesting reading from around the Web:

"We made a sommelier taste all the Trader Joe's Two-Buck Chuck":

Here's the thing, though: some of it's actually pretty damn good, and could easily be sold as Nine-to-Eleven-Buck Chuck without anyone being the wiser.

So we brought in two devoted tasters to blindly drink eight different types of Charles Shaw Blend, hit us with detailed notes, and determine 1) which bottles are totally palatable and even enjoyable, and 2) which should be avoided as if they were made by Chuck Woolery, who, it turns out, makes terrible wine.

"Growing Up Unvaccinated":

Pain, discomfort, the inability to breathe or to eat or to swallow, fever and nightmares, itching all over your body so much that you can’t stand lying on bed sheets, losing so much weight you can’t walk properly, diarrhea that leaves you lying prostrate on the bathroom floor, the unpaid time off work for parents (and if you’re self employed that means NO INCOME), the quarantine, missing school, missing parties, the worry, the sleepless nights, the sweat, the tears and the blood, the midnight visits to A and E, sitting in a doctor’s waiting room on your own because no one will sit near you because they’re rightfully scared of those spots all over your kid’s face.

Those of you who have avoided childhood illnesses without vaccines are lucky. You couldn’t do it without us pro-vaxxers. Once the vaccination rates begin dropping, the less herd immunity will be able to protect your children. The more people you convert to your anti-vax stance, the quicker that luck will run out.

"Celebrating Epiphany": I love Ann's ideas for month-long celebration! Very creative and family-friendly.

"The God of the Coming Year":

And Osteen’s books be damned, you may have the worst year of days you have ever seen.

"Resolve to Resolve":

In the place where hope meets grace, there is God. God is where resolutions become effective. God is where change happens. Grace is the answer to the naysayers, those voices both within and without who say that you cannot start afresh. Grace is the breath of fresh air in April when the resolutions of the new year and even the Lenten promises look like one big heap of failed attempts at perfection. Grace reminds us that His power is made perfect in our weakness and the true growth in holiness is in the soul’s earnest effort. Grace is sufficient. Sufficient? It’s abundant.

"Rainbow Rowell and the World with No Rules":

. . . YA novels should be written for teen readers, not adults who just want the teenagers in the books to hurry up and grow up. I’m not advocating for the teens in this book to grow up already and have their worldview and ethics all figured out. I just want them to have something, preferably Christianity, but something, to push against, to wrestle with, and possibly to grow into. 

"The Invisible Anglicanism of CS Lewis":

It is striking that as much as Lewis spoke about mere Christianity, when asked to speak about his own spiritual life he constantly returned to his roots in Anglicanism. Lewis might have written about a broad Christian orthodoxy, but the spiritual experience that enabled him to do so was much narrower. 

Weekend Links: Advent, Book-Binding, the Name of Jesus, and more!

I'm posting this weekend's links early because, well, it's Thanksgiving! :D  And I intend to spend the rest of the weekend drinking coffee, eating pie, and playing with Legos.  I hope you're doing something similarly relaxing with people you love. Happy Thanksgiving, wonderful people! I'm thankful for you.

And now, links!

"Advent: why it matters (and how to do it sanely)": I was excited to see "Let Us Keep the Feast" mentioned here (thanks, Tsh!), but also excited to see a lot of other awesome-looking resources. If you're looking for ideas for celebrating Advent, this post is a great resource.

"This is How Huge Door-stopper Fantasy Novels Get Made": If you've never seen the process of book printing and book-binding, this is a great photo essay on the subject. I thought it was fascinating!

"Savor the Name":

Most fruit seems like a gift, but a pomegranate is the most extravagant. The seeds burgeon under the skin, and when you tear it open with a tart ripping sound, the byzantine arrangement within tells you that here, there is both order and design, and an unaccountable exuberance. The seeds shine. They glow like rubies, and you crunch them with your teeth and lick the blood of rubies off your lips.

Well, that's how I feel about pomegranates. 

wordy wednesday: because if I had had a camera, it would have been a great picture:
a few weeks ago, I linked to a post by Sandra Taylor, saying, "this is why I love Sandra's blog: because she's always writing stuff like this." Well, the above-linked post is why I love Anne Kennedy's blog: because she's always writing stuff like this. (And this.)

Crossroads Kids' Club: looks like a neat activity-a-day Advent program!

"Let Us Keep the Feast: a Book Recommendation":

. . . because what I really wanted wasn’t an abstract identity, but something that I could touch: I wanted Shabaat meals by candlelight, and long, restful Sabaath days; I wanted mezuzahs and prayer shawls, feasting and fasting; I wanted to dance with the scrolls on Simchat Torah, and eat the bitter herbs of Egypt on Passover.

"What Steven Moffat Doesn’t Understand About Grief, And Why It’s Killing Doctor Who":

Then Moffat, of course, took over the show as show runner. And once again, people just seem to keep… not dying. Part of the problem is that Moffat’s a big fan of the Giant Reset Button — so much so that he literally wrote in a Giant Reset Button into the episode Journey to the Center of the TARDIS. One step above the “It was all a dream” plot, the Giant Reset Button absolves the characters and the writers of any repercussions and they can carry on as they were, even though we, the audience, saw a “major event” that is evidently no longer relevant. You can have your fun and adventure, but you need not learn or grow or change from it.

Links - the year, the time, and the wine

"The Year of Not Putting Up With Things":

Maybe we should blame it on the practice of frugality that seems to have come with my German heritage, but I've put up with a lot of minor inconveniences over the course of my life...little things being not quite right, particularly in my home or in my wardrobe. A belt doesn't fit quite right. A dress rides up funny on one side. A shirt feels a tiny bit too short. The trusty black pumps I've owned and worn for years have started to separate from their strap on one shoe. The toilet in the guest bathroom splashes the lid when you flush. The rug in our living room is too small for the space. Our air conditioning has never worked.

"The Best Wine in the History of the World":

He was about to perform his first public miracle. Let me frame that a different way. He was about to formally and publicly introduce himself to his bride—the church—for the first time. I wonder if Mary’s request sounded to him something like, “Go on, son. Ask that girl to dance.”

"Routine Life":

Some mornings I wake up feeling ready to do it all again. Ready to get out of bed (after drinking coffee, of course), face the day, clean, prep meals, homeschool, do laundry, break up fights, nurse the baby. But some days, I just feel do not feel it. I do not feel like getting up and doing it all. Those days generally do not go well. But sometimes, something happens to arrest me mid-day and change everything.

 Usually, that thing is . . . work.

"how do I Run a Micro business and homeschool?": this whole thing was interesting, but I love, love, love Christine's observation about her home:

 I don’t decorate the house – it’s the lab for making projects in, it isn’t itself a project. 

Hey, I've got one of those project-lab houses, too! :D

"I love this bar (and a recipe)":

Houston, we have a problem. Even though I know that I can make something akin to a Larabar in my food processor and have a great granola bar recipe that most of our family will eat, even though I no longer buy boxes of granola bars or nutri grain bars for the children I cannot resist the lure of the bar.

There is something about the presentation, the bright colors, the many flavors, that seems to beckon. Eat me! They cry. I am interesting and fun and come in my own individual wrapper. I have as much protein as a chicken breast but taste like fake cookie dough coated in fake chocolate. Eat me and you can skip taking your multivitamin! I can make you happy!

"Op-Ed: An Ode to Ordinary Time": I'm not quoting from this one, because the fun is in the scroll-down reveal.

"Guinevere and Julia: The Platypus Reads Part CCX":

. . . it's a necessary part of all romance and adventure that we not be allowed to weasel out every time our beliefs land us in hard places. 

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Happy Christ the King Sunday!

It's the last Sunday of the church year, when we celebrate Christ as King. It's my favorite Sunday of the entire year. In the words of the Te Deum:

Thou art the king of glory, oh Christ!

Thou art the everlasting son of the Father!

When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man,

thou didst humble thyself to be born of a Virgin.

When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death,

thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

Thou sittest at the right hand of God, in the glory of the Father.

We believe that thou shalt come to be our judge.

     We therefore pray thee, help thy servants,

     whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood.

     Make them to be numbered with thy saints,

     in glory everlasting.

And, to accompany that, here's some properly apocalyptic music, both heartening and sobering - because he will come, and he will surely come soon:

Before it's too late . . .

. . . happy feast of the Transfiguration! Reading today's gospels I was struck, as always, with the image of Christ standing between the Law (Moses) and the Prophets (Elijah). It's so striking, that picture of him, the fulfillment of all the law and the prophets had to teach us.

And again with the idea of Moses standing, finally, in the promised land.

And then noticing the writer saying that then Moses and Elijah disappeared, and the disciples saw Jesus alone.

Christ alone. The fulfillment of all hope.

I think the Transfiguration, of all the major feasts, might provide the most striking picture to the mind. God is an artist.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Yarnalong: Chain Reaction Afghan and "The Jesus Prayer" by Frederica Mathewes-Green

I'm reading "The Jesus Prayer: The Ancient Desert Prayer that Tunes the Heart to God" by Frederica Mathewes-Green, and I'm working on the Chain Reaction Afghan for my daughter.

Here are a few of the finished squares of the afghan:

Different techniques for each square, which keeps it fun:

The book, like all of Mathewes-Green's books, is good. Here's a quotation:

   The things we lay down firmly in our memories matter. They endure. If you take the words of the Jesus Prayer and "write them on the tablet of your heart" (Prov. 3:3), on the day when you are far away on the gray sea of Alzheimer's, the Prayer will still be there, keeping your hand clasped in the hand of the Lord.

    A nun had been assigned to care for an elderly monk with advanced dementia. One day his babbling was of a kind that was distressing to her. Suddenly he broke free, as it were, looked her in the eye and said, "Dear sister, you are upset because of what I am saying. But do not fear. Inside, I am with God."

So good. I'm reading this one slowly, mulling and thinking and letting it soak in.

More squares. A woven one:

A medallion:

I think my daughter is really going to like her blanket when it's done.

More yarny and literary goodness over at Small Things.

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

a bad argument for Planned Parenthood

If you're reading this, and you're one of the many women who've had an abortion, please know that I'm not writing to make you feel worse. Facing a pregnancy that will upend your world is terrifying, and there's not a one of us who hasn't done something stupid or wrong because we were scared. Along with that, it seems to me that abortion is a crime that, in many ways, carries its punishment with it, because who's going to miss the absent child more than the child's own mother? If you are in this place and sorrowing, know that there is certain forgiveness and comfort. The Lord Jesus only welcomes sinners, and so that's me and you and everyone. Please come to him and be relieved of the weight you're carrying. Set it down and be made whole. And know that there are wonderful people who will help you through your grief.

It is because of the great sorrow and weight of an abortion, though, that arguments like this trouble me so much. The pie chart seems to imply that because abortion services are only 3% of the services provided by Planned Parenthood that they carry no weight.

Does a wrong cease to be wrong just because it is performed by a person who mostly does right?

If a doctor spends 97% of his time caring for the poor, and 3% of his time euthanizing the old, are the euthanizations less criminal? If a teacher cares excellently for 97 of his students, but molests 3 of them, are those molestations less horrific? If a mechanic provides good service for 97% of his clients, but cheats 3% of them, is he less of a thief?

There are very good conversations to be had about abortion, about the care of women who become pregnant in hard circumstances, and about providing health care for the poor. But this argument? It is no argument at all.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Links! Time, Light, and Space

Lars Walker writes about Talented People. His take on the parable of the talents is one of those brilliant things that makes you say, "well, of course! that's blindingly obvious! but I never saw it that way till now - thank you for pointing it out!"

For those of you in Southern California - my friend, Emily Moothart, is a doula who has a passion for helping women have great births. If you're in the market for a doula or know someone who is, check her out!

John Scalzi looks forward to the year 2012 in science fiction movies. I took three things away from this article:
   1. I didn't know "Old Man's War" had been optioned for a movie. Cool!
   2. Scalzi has much higher hopes than I do for "John Carter" (of Mars). I saw the preview in theater and snickered through the whole thing. Taylor Kitsch, get back into your football jersey!
   3. There are a fair amount of sci-fi movies coming out next year. Yay!

It's almost Epiphany, and the way to celebrate it is with light and space. This is just so beautiful. And appealing.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Lazarus

There's a small section in Tennyson's great poem, In Memorium, about the raising of Lazarus from the dead. One part made my breath puff out in a half-laugh, half expression of astonishment, as Tennyson wondered how Lazarus might have answered his sister when she asked him where he had been those several days he was dead, and observes:

Behold a man raised up by Christ!
The rest remaineth unreveal'd;
He told it not; or something seal'd
The lips of that Evangelist.

Indeed. One wonders.

But then the next section of the poem caught me by surprise with its beauty:

Her eyes are homes of silent prayer,
Nor other thought her mind admits
But, he was dead, and there he sits,
And he that brought him back is there.

Then one deep love doth supersede
All other, when her ardent gaze
Roves from the living brother's face,
And rests upon the Life indeed.

Can you even imagine?

And yet someday we will all sit around a table in that company: our beloved dead, who are no longer dead, and Life Himself.

God have mercy on us sinners.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell