Advent marks the beginning of the ecclesiastical year. As we approach yet another celebration of Christmas as a people, we need to recall how to celebrate such days as the people of God. If we are not careful, we will stumble—perhaps to the right and perhaps to the left. For the weapons of our warfare …
As Ever, the Logic
“For all the tattoos, Details message is no different than any other lifestyle magazine: Who you are depends on what you consume, and how hip you are depends on how enthusiastically you keep up with the new. Nonconformity may be the language, but fashion is, as ever, the logic.” [Frank and Weiland, editors, Commodify Your …
The Prosaic Ceiling
Indulge me for a moment. I am working through a volume of poetry by Robert Siegel, The Waters Under the Earth, which I am really enjoying. I would encourage you to do the same. Get it today! Christmas is coming! But in the course of reading him, some unsettled thoughts about poetry that I have …
Business Opportunity
From time to time, we get inquiries from people who are thinking about moving here to Moscow. One of the great concerns about doing this is that pesky detail of making a living. If anyone out there is in this position, I know of a good business opportunity here (a business for sale) that requires …
Department of Hip Resources
“The people who staff the Combine aren’t like Nurse Ratched. They aren’t Frank Burns, they aren’t the Church Lady, they aren’t Dean Wormer from Animal House, they are not those repressed old folks in the commercials who want to ban Tropicana Fruit Twisters. They’re hipper than you can ever hope to be because hip is …
A Picture Can Be A Thousand Times As Logocentric
For those who eschew definitions and logocentrism, but who still want to know what emergent is.
Ezra Nehemiah 4
Introduction The task that the returning exiles had was that of rebuilding in the midst of ruin. The work was overwhelming and the challenges huge, and we are very much in a similar position. As we have noted, one of our basic tasks is that of learning from them. The Text: “And when the seventh …
What Actually Occurreth
I am not at all enthralled by the critique that postmodernists offer up of modernist hubris, any more than I am entranced by the critique that modernists offer of postmodern incoherence. The fact that postmodern dwarves are shooting at the Calormene modernists is not an occasion for me to throw my hat in the air. …
My Lutheranism, Hitherto Unsuspected
In a recent response to my question, Andrew Sandlin was kind enough to write the following. “By ‘factuality’ in redemptive-historical creedal affirmations I mean that Jesus really lived, died, rose again, and will come again in the air for His own.” In doing this, he has let me know that he not only affirms the …
More Than In Our Private Times
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! Great God of the city, the city of Zion, Your foundation stands sure, Your foundation is in the holy mountains. Your city is in the holy mountains. You love the gates of Zion, You love the public worship of Your saints More …