Like and Love, Ramblings of a Theologian in Progress

Dear Internet- Being a PhD student means a variety of things. In particular, it means that I spend a lot of time reading . Sadly (or happily on some days) it means I read a lot on a very, very narrow topic. And as much fun as reading about theology and the Holocaust and politics is (sarcasm loosely applied- some of it is actually fascinating, albeit maybe not fun ), it means that in my scant free time I've stopped reading much else. Instead I spend a majority of my free time either on the computer or watching TV, neither of which is good to do before bed for an insomniac. So here's my new plan for 2016: In the hour and a half before I go to sleep, I'm going to be "screen" free, relatively speaking. In this time I'm working on journaling and reading through the Bible via a 365 Day reading plan. But I also just want to read- and I have a plan. What if I read 10% of a different book every night for 10 weeks? I can read about 20-30 pages per hour, but have a...

When I was 8 or 9 years old I received a boombox, in all its mid 90's glory. My first CDs were Billy Joel (I loved "Only the Good Die Young"), Mariah Carey, Amy Grant, and Ace of Base's  The Bridge.  Before that purchase I had a Sony Walkman and a cassette player. This was followed by many Discmans and various iterations of iPods. As a Christmas gift one year I asked for a car stereo that was compatible with my iPod. Which is all to say that I can't remember a point in my life when music wasn't intrinsically part of it. More often than not you'll see me with my headphones in. I run to music, I work to music, I meander in the rain to music. Spotify will be acknowledged in my thesis, somewhere before Jack, but near the end. So when my colleagues in the TheoLab issued an invitation to anyone capable of reading Kevin Hardagen's blog to compile a "Best of" music for 2016, I decided it would be a good exercise in looking at the past y...

Lectionary Texts: Job 42: 1-6, 10-16; Mark 10:46-52 (preached 25 October 2015, St. John's Aberdeen) What does it mean to be lost? When we say that we are lost, we almost always mean that in the course of getting from destination A to destination B we’ve lost our way. There was a path to be on and that path disappeared a few left turns ago. I’m particularly bad at getting lost between a start and a finish. Even with the advent of Google Maps, I’m more than likely going to get myself misplaced. Case in point- my first time navigating to St. John’s, I made it all the way to the Crown Terrace Baptist Church and couldn’t figure out for the life of me what google wanted me to do. While I, theoretically, understand maps- but truth be told if I had been in charge of leading the Israelites to the Promised Land, we would either still be wandering or landed somewhere closer to South Africa because that turn “felt right.” But being lost has a much deeper meaning. Merriam-Webster gi...

I was given the opportunity to preach the homily this Sunday at St. John the Evangelist in Aberdeen. Below is the text of the sermon. Lectionary texts: Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22, James 5:13-20, and Mark 9:38-50 Holy is the familiar room And quiet moments in the afternoon And folding sheets like folding hands To pray as only laundry can Laundry seems to be anything but holy, yet American folk singer Carrie Newcomer invites us to reimagine the ordinary actions of our lives as part of the holiness of creation. The quiet moments, the laundry, even the sound and smell of eggs and salt in the frying pan, make up the tangible liturgy of the day. It is in the ordinary that she sees the outworking of grace. At times it’s difficult to see the beauty in the ordinary. It is even more difficult to expect the holy in the ordinary. Although Genesis narrates the story of creation to remind us of God’s breathe and word in all of creation, we often take that for granted and trample u...

It's been a busy summer and an even busier few months, which means I have not posted anything in what seems like forever. But term has started and some things need to be written and reflected on. Last night we rewatched the season finale of New Girl. It's a good episode and a very nice season finale, the kind that fills you with excitement for the next season and a twinge of sadness because you're saying goodbye to your fictional companions for several months. The part of the episode that really affected me was the closing seen. One of the characters is leaving for New York and in the scenes of his departure The Head and the The Heart's "Rivers and Roads" plays in the background. It's fast become one of my favorite songs since the initial viewing, but only upon yesterday's viewing did its full impact hit. A year from now we'll all be gone All our friends will move away And they're goin' to better places But our friends will be gone aw...

For those that asked for the sermon I delivered to St. John the Evangelist this past weekend, it's below. This particular Sunday was also Mother's Day in the United Kingdom so if the imagery is a bit focused on that you will understand why (I stand by the imagery, regardless of the holiday- but it is drawn out a bit more for the occasion). And in good high church fashion, I preached from the lectionary texts for the day: Many thanks to my dear friend Meredith for not only coming to the service, but taking this picture Numbers 21:4-9 Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22 Ephesians 2:1-10 John 3:14-21 It’s Mothering Sunday and it seems only right that we come to the Old Testament in the Book of Numbers and the children of God are being, a bit childish and petulant. Numbers has always felt like it was written by someone who had recently traveled with small children because Israel complains a lot. The food is never right. The journey is taking too long. Someone is always being mean. T...