A message to all politicians and politically-inclined people

especially to those who claim to care for and represent the nation in which I live...

It seems that there's a lot more anger and fighting than there used to be, especially when my grandparents (and even parents) were my age, and it seems that instead of trying to work together, people on both sides have been stonewalling each other. Last I checked, we live in the... 

oh, shoot, what's it called again?

The Divided States of America? No wait, that doesn't sound right...

... our acronyms are U, S, and A. Hmm, what could it be?

The Unorganized States of America... ? Dang, I can't remember now.

My message to all politicians and politically-inclined people: get back me to me when you figure it out.

A Response to "The Discipline of Love"

I never really understood the whole "if your [body part] causes you to sin, tear it out, for it is better to have one [of said body part] and go to heaven, instead of going to hell with two [of said body part]." The passage from Mark 9:42-49 leaves much to be interpreted, in that if my right foot slipped on a banana peel, causing me to slip, bump into another person, and cause [him/her] to fall into a [pool, mud puddle, insert other object that you don't want to fall in or on].

I went to St. John's ELCA this morning for the first time since my out-of-state sejours last month. On a side note I guess, I've been visiting all sorts of places that I didn't go during my first five years in Northfield, but at the same time, I've gotten increasingly comfortable doing so (and not just going to one place all the time). That said, I knew I'd picked the right place this week -- I hopped into my car at about 10:30 this morning, and I knew of about three places where worship services were starting at 10:45, and just picked one -- when I glanced in the bulletin at the sermon's title. It read, "The Discipline of Love."

You probably know I'm a big believer of the importance of God's love and love in general, so I was going to take a decent bit of interest in this. This passage is surrounded by many passages involving bodies possessed by demons, including a young boy who could not speak and foamed at the mouth (Mark 9:14-29), and immediately follows the disciples' question about whether or not to stop a man "pretending" to cast out demons (Mark 9:38-41).

To say the least, casting out demons is pretty heady stuff, and most importantly there is a lot of love involved with this particular issue. God shows us the greatest example of His love by giving us Jesus specifically with the intention of saving those in trouble (John 3:16, anyone?). Casting out demons is yet another example of this "love/salvation" bundle, and getting back to the post's thesis, the "cutting off body parts" passage reflects God's love for us. For instance, if our coveting things or people (i.e. "the eye causing one to sin") prevents us from being examples of said love, we need to figure out how to remove it from our lives. In short, cutting off an eye, or a hand, or a foot is a metaphor. As humans, we were created imperfectly, and it's something we have to live with (to some degree). But with God's help and His love, we can be rid of it.

There's one final point I'd like to make to expand on this. Looking at people who preach (and in my opinion obsess over) the "badness" of sin, they often miss the crucial ingredient of God's love, and the uttermost reliance (faith, might I say?) on Him to help us. The attitude that one must change oneself in order to be "acceptable" to Him (i.e. saved) might appear to work for some, but I'd argue it doesn't for most. It puts distance between individual and God. This process of overcoming (if there is overcoming to be done) needs Him first and foremost, if any progress is to be achieved.

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Last night, I went to an observatory event for the first time. It was one of those things I didn't quite get to do while down in Texas, but now I've made up for it. Plus, I got to see the planet Neptune!

Here's a story for the ages...

I'm not usually one to brag, given my own spiritual/religious values (for some reason, they just don't condone it), but this has to go up there, with the time I grabbed a coat hanger... and proceeded to stick it in the keyhole of my dad's old 1986 Toyota Camry several years back (instead of sticking it through the window to pull the lock up).

Scalpers. Here's how you apparently beat 'em*: arrive about an hour after the baseball game starts, be the only one among your friends with cash (and a very limited amount), and appear utterly disinterested in buying scalper tickets when you could just as easily go to the ticket sales area, which is what we were planning to do in the first place.

End result: I bought three behind-home-plate tickets (upper deck, of course) for only $8. Unfortunately there were four of us, so the fourth ticket had to be bought at face value ($22 I think). But instead of paying a combined $28 for four cheap seats tickets way out behind left field, we essentially paid the same amount for the same number of tickets behind home plate.

At the end, though, I'm thinking the scalpers were just looking to get rid of their tickets (I bought the last three that they had), so they probably would have taken anything. But there you have it.

For your enjoyment, below is a pic of the baseball field. Since the Metrodome will no longer be in use by the Twins after this year, this pic could potentially have some historic value to it. Oh, and the Twins beat the Tigers ["http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090918&content_id=7037924&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=min"] 3-0 in what has become a pretty tight pennant race. ["http://espn.go.com/mlb/huntforoctober"]

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* Said scalping the scalpers has been proven to work at the Metrodome only once, and with ones who are desperate to sell.

A New Testament address

I've been spending some time reflecting on a couple things over the course of the week. Here is a rather zoomed-out perspective, tying to a larger, New Testament-focused theme. Read on:

1.) James 2:14-17. It was the scriptural verse this last Sunday at the church I went to, and between the ideas expressed and the interpretation the pastor gave for his sermon, it's given me a bit to think about. The issue raised is works and faith. The argument that the author of James gives favors the need for works, and he argues that faith without works is dead. The pastor talked about how that contrasted Martin Luther's idea that faith is more important than works, and he went on to defend the verses in James. I came away pleasantly surprised, with the conclusion (at least as I understood it) that one really needs both. Faith is important, but so is works, to prove that it's an active faith. I've found it's really tough to balance, because there's always the danger of showing a "passive" faith (i.e. not very many works), as well as the danger of serving for purposes other than God's. But at least it's inspired me to look into more of the new testament in general (to date I have familiarity with the Gospels, and Acts and Romans a little bit, but that's about it).

2.) I've been praying for a friend of mine who's going through a tough time with his faith in the church. He recently went to a service where, in his opinion, the pastor gave a hate-filled sermon and used parts of the Bible to back it up. I've kind of just been praying and thinking about some of the issues he raised, and looking through the scriptures for some further in-depth reading to see exactly what they're saying.

One thing I've learned through talking with friends is the difference between the Old and New Testament, and how the new testament focuses on Christ and God's love, and that's the brand of faith I've found I embrace; hence my recent skimmings through as many of the books as I can.

La nuit