From Knowledge to Wisdom

Jesus the Emergent Pastor

John Frye has posted an amazing series of sharp pieces that bring the reality of Jesus into focus. The reality of the time in which he lived, the politics, the power games, the dust, the smell, the language all come into view. But above all the person of Jesus, His way of dealing with people and the kind of people he found important come into sharp focus. Here are the links:

Jesus the (First) Emergent Pastor
1. Jesus the Emergent Pastor: Worldview
2. Jesus the Emergent Pastor: God
3. Jesus the Emergent Pastor: Bible
4. Jesus the Emergent Pastor: New Ways of Seeing People
5. Jesus the Emergent Pastor: Redefining Everything
6. Jesus the Emergent Pastor: This Particular Jew
7. Jesus the Emergent Pastor: The Community of Explorers

Here are some quotes to whet your curiosity ...

The Oxford Comma

What a delight! Apparently it is OK in some circumstances to have a comma before the word 'and'! From the FAQ on askoxford.com:

Some people do not realize that the Oxford comma is acceptable, possibly because they were brought up with the supposed rule (which Fowler would call a 'superstition') about putting punctuation marks before and.

Talk For Our New Gathering

We are gathering again for the first time since we were 'freed from churchianity'. We met for the second time today, twelve of us. I had been invited beforehand to give a short talk on the two Bible readings: Ephesians 1:15-23, Matthew 25:31-46.

Here is a version of my notes.

The Word - Fresh

Thanks to TSK for the tip about NET BIBLE®-First Edition, available on-line, downloadable or traditional hardcopy from Bible.org.

The NET Bible is a completely new translation of the Bible with 60,932 translators’ notes! It was completed by more than 25 scholars – experts in the original biblical languages – who worked directly from the best currently available Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts.

Looks like it may qualify as my translation of choice.

Keeping Track of the Kids

Catherine phones home today: "just to let you know we were arrested (again) for a while this afternoon". The piece on AT5 Nieuws roughly translates as:

Anti Verdonk Activists Arrested
Four activists were arrested on Thursday afternoon at the Amsterdam College (Hogeschool) because they were collecting signatures in favour of the resignation of Rita Verdonk. The International Socialist activists were demanding Verdonk's resignation because of the fire on Schiphol which cost the lives of eleven people. According to the  Socialists "the arrests are a continuation of the police policy which lead to the earlier forcible removal of protest banners against Verdonk from house fronts." The police arrested the activists on the grounds of breach of the peace".

According to the news reports their arrest by the police was initiated by the College management. The police sent four cars to arrest four students who were peacefully collecting signatures on a petition.

After being held in a police cell for six hours and questioned about the organisation of the protest they were suddenly released without charge. Theories about what triggered their release include that the national TV news were onto the story, it is a good follow up to the police removing the protest banners. But bad news for Job Cohen, Mayor of Amsterdam, his speech at the memorial to Theo van Gogh last week was full of stuff about Amsterdam being a great place for liberty and freedom of speech.

The Pile I'm Standing In

Sometimes I think maybe the title theme of this blog was a bit ambitious. Maybe I should have chosen something more down to earth and like Jen Zug at The Pile I'm Standing In.

"What I’ve come to realize is that all human beings are standing in a pile of shit that is their life, their past, their sin, their baggage. You can shovel it all you want in denial, you can plug your nose and try to ignore it, you can plant pretty flowers on it so no one notices what you’re standing in – but the fact of the matter is that YOU ARE STANDING IN A PILE OF SHIT.

"My writing is simply the honest testimony to the pile I happen to be standing in."

However, ...