Saturday, October 12, 2024

The Evangeliad (30:1-3)


Section 30:1-3 (corresponding to Luke 14:7-9)

Jesus looked round the room, then spoke these words,
Advising the men on what he'd observed:
"When you are invited to a feast, my friends,
Don't seek out the table's most honored end.

You want for yourselves a prestigious spot,
But vanity's shame will be all you got
When you're moved by the host to the lowest seat,
Where common folk and humility meet.

For what if a guest more honored than you
Should come through the door, then isn't it true?--
The host would come and unseat you himself,
To give the best spot to somebody else.

Tuesday, October 08, 2024

Changes to My Blog


After several years of posting on a daily (or near-daily) basis, I'm going to scale back my presence on this blog, moving to a weekly pattern. The quotes, photos, and prayers will be going away, at least for a little while (reasons for this shift can be found below). Nevertheless, a few things will remain the same:

- I will continue posting new sections of my Evangeliad poem, partly because I've found that keeping a scheduled posting habit has kept me moving on the project, and it likely has at least a couple more years to go. Those poems will now be posted near the end of each week. 

- Sermon podcasts will no longer be posted directly to this blog, but you can easily access them by going to my church's website (calaisbaptist.org), and clicking the "Sermons" tab. There is a permanent link to the church website on the sidebar of this blog (if you're viewing the desktop version of the page).

- I will also occasionally post essays, though not on an every-week basis. Essays were one of the staples of this blog a few years back, and I had moved away from them because of time constraints, but I found that I greatly enjoyed the handful of essays I wrote after coming home from my England trip. Every once in a while, then, you can expect to see an essay (and maybe, just maybe, a new hymn!).

Two main motivators are driving this shift: first, my schedule has changed significantly in the past two years, making an every-day posting habit difficult to maintain. I'm now working part-time teaching classes and writing books in addition to my pastoral ministry (in fact, I have a new book manuscript under contract right now, and it will command much of my time until December). Reducing the time given to the blog will enable me to take one small thing off the mountain of little demands that make up my life. At the same time, it will also free up the blog to highlight some of the projects that develop on a more sporadic basis.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, I'm committed to radically cutting down the amount of time I spend looking at digital screens this year. This week marks two years since the beginning of my oblate novitiate (and nearly a year as a full monastic oblate). I'm working to bring some of the practices of my life more in line with the wisdom of the monastic tradition, which is characterized by patience, listening, and leaving margins of silence and contemplation in one's daily life, to more readily recall oneself to the awareness of God's presence. The ubiquity of screens in our modern life--from smartphones to laptops to TVs hooked up to streaming platforms--tends to work the other way, filling up all the available margins with an incessant stream of articles, shows, games, posts, and trivialities. I'll still have to use my computer for necessary research and communication, and I'll still engage in watching an occasional show, movie, or sporting event as a communal activity with others, but that's where I'm drawing the line. For the next year, I'll be reducing my exposure to screens down to just two roles: necessary tasks and communal hospitality. 

Cutting back on some of my blog-posting schedule will enable me to stay away from the computer more consistently, and the creative pieces that I'll continue to post--poems, and the occasional essay or hymn--are things that can be entirely composed elsewhere (by hand or with my gloriously old-fashioned word-processor, which features nothing but a four-line text display). So look for (at the very least) a weekly Evangeliad post, and an occasional extra piece every now and then. I'll of course have weeks during vacations where I'm not posting anything, and I'll probably not announce those breaks formally anymore; just look for the normal posts to resume in a week or two weeks' time if there's a gap. I'll also certainly continue using the blog to keep readers apprised of new books and articles that may be coming out shortly, so keep an eye out for that.

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

The Evangeliad (29:43-38)


Section 29:43-48 (corresponding to Luke 14:1-6)

Once, in the home of a chief Pharisee,
Where Jesus had come to talk and to eat,
They watched all the things he would do and would say,
To catch him in error on that Sabbath-day.

And there in their midst stood a man in pain,
Stricken with dropsy, swollen, aflame;
So Jesus regarded the man and the crowd,
And their silent question he uttered aloud:

"Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath-day?"
But they were silent, had nothing to say.
So Jesus reached out, and with a touch,
He healed the man and bade him get up.

Then after sending the healed man away,
He looked at the crowd and had this to say:
"If on the Sabbath your ox or your son
Fell down a well, the decision is done--

You'd pull them right out, and not even wait,
For such precious things must be saved straightaway."
Then no word of rebuke would anyone say,
Nor lift up their eyes to challenge his gaze.

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

Photo of the Week


So is my word that goes out from my mouth: 
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

- Isaiah 55:11

Monday, September 23, 2024

Quote of the Week


"If you want to know who God is, look at Jesus. If you want to know what it means to be human, look at Jesus. If you want to know what love is, look at Jesus. If you want to know what grief is, look at Jesus. And go on looking until you’re not just a spectator, but you’re actually part of the drama which has him as the central character."

- N. T. Wright

Thursday, September 12, 2024

Sermon

 As I get back into my regular posting schedule, I'll continue including audio files of my Sunday sermons here, usually in the Thursday slot. We're just starting a series looking at prophecies and foreshadowings of Jesus in the Old Testament, seeking to see the portrait of the Savior that emerges from the many ways that God prepared his people for their Messiah. It's called "Glimpses of Grace," similar to the partial series of essays by the same name here on the blog. This first sermon looks at the portrait of Christ which emerges from Genesis 1.