The Arrow's Path

I think it is important in this gluttonous haze of Thanksgivoweenmas to ruminate a bit on the true meaning of Christmas as it pertains to the Christian calendar. I know this may be shocking to some, and maybe even disturbing. But yes, western culture has Christmas all wrong. We put up or Christmas trees at Thanksgiving and sing carols all through what is supposed to be Advent, and then Christmas arrives and boom! Everything is taken down on the 26th (or later for those slackers). This, my friends, is wacked out. Christmas celebrated the birth of Christ! It is not merely a one day event! It is a 12 day event that started on the 25th and ends on the 6th of January (Epiphany). The twelve days of Christmas! Real Christmas, not the packaged and wrapped gift getting orgy we celebrate on the 25th and then begin counting the shopping days until next year! This is my first installment of Christmas according to the Church calendar. So, Enjoy Advent! Christmas is right around the corner,...

Well, that's that. The quarter end is finally over and I survived. All the papers turned in by the stockings with care, exams finished. Well, actually I only had one exam. And yes, Clement of Rome died in 100 and Origen was allegedly a eunuch. I know all that stuff. It was a fun ride, but its good to take a break. Thanks to everyone who said a prayer for me this holiday season. In other news, I sometimes do a bit of sports writing and such, usually off the record. I do like football. I happened to be talking off the record to some Ohio State boosters the other day (they were playing Northwestern), and they told me they gave money and other goodies to OSU football players all the time. I couldn't believe they'd just up and admit this to someone they didn't know. I asked them how they could get away with it, and they said, "Its the perfect scenario. Its cash and off the record, and Coach Tressel can simply claim he doesn't know anything about it. Everybody does...

In my ongoing mini-series on what we as Christians mean by the season of Advent, I thought a brief history of the season might be in order. Being a history major, it is my wont. Its my blog, and I'll blog if I want to ;) The earliest concrete evidence we have of any sort of Advent season really begins in about AD 500. It seems to have originated somewhere in Gaul (modern day France). There are some sermons from Caeserius, Bishop of Arles (502-542), in which we find mention of a preparation before the birthday of of Christ. A Synod in Macon, Gaul, around 581 orders a lenten like fast the week before the start of Christmas. Advent spread in the West to Spain and Italy, where in 650, much evidence points to a 5 Sunday season of Lent in Church calendars. In the eastern Church, we find no documents for the observance of Advent earlier than the eighth century. Gregory VII, pope around 1000, changed that formula to 4 Sundays before Christmas. Currently, Advent is scheduled to start...

The following is a letter/editorial from the Rt. Rev. Edward Little, bishop of Northern Indiana. As this is something near to my heart, I felt like I needed to post it here on my blog. While I agree that Israel is no paragon of domestic peace and tranquility, I do have to agree that I think part of what Little talks about here in the church is modivated perhaps by benign anti-semitism. I have certainly heard some border line slurs here at Seabury at various "Peace and Justice Ministries" programs when on the issue of Israel is brought up, which troubled me greatly. I amnot going to name any names or specific events, but I have since refused to go to any such activities here at Seabury since. I've been to Israel, I've seen a lot of stuff including a suicide bombing amongst other things. I don't know what the answer is, frankly. If I did I would run for God. I do think that to simply blame Israel is simplistic. Both sides are right and both sides are wrong here. I ...

Deconstructing Micaiah: Prophet, Coward, or Mastermind? Micaiah is one of the most completely enigmatic figures in the Old Testament. Micaiah is the prophet mentioned in, and only in, 1st Kings 22. Traditional understanding of Micaiah is that of the “true prophet” of YHWH that is the only one of 401 prophets that stood up to Ahab and prophesied Ahab's downfall. With most forms of biblical criticism unhelpful or ambiguous, the post-modern, post-Watergate reader, might find a completely different understanding of Micaiah and his agenda if one analyzes the text as a whole story or through the lens of deconstructive theory. . 1st Kings 22 is a chapter of the bible that completely defies conventional forms of criticism. Scholars that follow such criticisms as historical, source, form, and even textual rarely agree with any degree of consensus exactly who or why the chapter was written or even appropriate translations of words (de Vries 4-9). Some historical critics do not even agree t...

Christianity at one time fueled all that was in art and music during the middle ages and Renaissance. Further proof that Europe has descended into Post-Christendom: click here .