The Arrow's Path

This is so wrong on so many levels . And by a Panel of Ethics no less.

We are still planning to have soup supper tonight for anyone who is in town and can get around. I'm doing Creole for the first ethnic meal and already have all the stuff. (I doubt I will be able to obtain fresh okra again.) Don't feel obligated to come. I know the roads are a slushy mess out there and will probably only get worse after the sun goes down.  As with any Church function: if in doubt, be safe and stay home. If you can get out and about, come on down. The Creole will warm you up. Tonight's menu: Jambalaya Vegetable Gumbo A Crawfish dish to be named later. We will not start the Wednesday Night Lent bible study until next week, as I know a few people who might not be able to get to town do want to come to that. We can, after dinner, do Stations of the Cross for anyone who is interested. Thanks, -The Archer

The following is my monthly parish newsletter article entitled, "Understanding Lent." -The Archer ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Many people from both within and without our tradition dislike the season of Lent. People outside our tradition sometimes see Lent as a season of meaningless rituals and vain fasts that do not really edify the Christian walk. Some people even from inside our tradition likewise tend to dislike Lent because they see it as a dour season where all we can talk about is sin, wickedness, and self denial. Both critiques labor under a misunderstanding of what the meaning of the season of Lent really is at its fundamental core. Believe it or not, Lent is primarily about Baptism. Without Baptism as a foundation, Lent can truly become a shackle of penitential blathering and meaningless rituals based on nothing more that the fact that we have always done it this way. Lent developed in the early centu...

In my previous blog post, I relayed a question submitted by e-mail from a blog reader. On the surface, the question primarily involved "last rites" and/or "extreme unction." There were several other issues and topics involved, but the sacrament of healing was at the forefront of the question. As such, that seems as good a place to start as any. Basically, "last rites" is derived from the custom of anointing of the sick. For purposes of this blog entry, I am going to try to discuss from a biblical foundation why we have anointing of the sick and what we base those notions on. In the next entry, I am going to try to map out the history of anointing of the sick in a no doubt oversimplified history of how the custom evolved into a sacrament and how it then evolved (or devolved as the case may be) into "last rites." One note/disclaimer: I am going to try to be as even handed in the laying out of the scriptural foundation and history of anointing o...

There is an excellent blog post here about the history of Minor League Baseball in the South . It brought back some of my fondest memories as a kid, which was going with my father to the (then) Knoxville K-Jays games of the Southern League. That was back when the team was a Toronto affiliate playing at the crumbling and decrepit Bill Meyer stadium in the rough section of downtown Knoxville, TN. The players had to walk out of the clubhouse through the stands and onto the field. You could always hit them up for autographs. If you went on one particular night of the week, it was church bulletin night. If you brought a church bulletin you got a cheaper admission ticket. I still think the current Smokies still have that gimmick. They also always ran the "Dirtiest Car in the Parking Lot" contest. They randomly affixed a free K-Jays license plate if you were a winner, the actual description and license plate number of which would be read over the loudspeaker intercom to ...

I have received an e-mail from a blog reader that wanted me to expound on a particular theological issue, which I am more that happy to do. This is the e-mail in its entirety: " I am confused. My studies in particular are confused by the sacrament of last rights or extreme unction. It almost appears that they use this as one means to absolve sins. I cannot go along with that. I firmly believe that the choices we make in life, we pay the price for in this life (ex.- health or family problems) and are responsible to answer for in the afterlife, when we face God. How can we be "prayed" into heaven? Either I am misinterpreting what I am reading and researching or there is more to it than this. Could you maybe do a Costly Grace exert to help those of us who do not understand?" On first read, the e-mail seems to want an theological explanation of last rights. Upon further reading, I realize that this e-mail touches on a whole host of theological topics that are tied...

An Ash Wednesday reflection from my former college roommate who is now a Baptist minister in North Carolina.

So, what are you giving up for Lent? (Hint: Fasts are not simply about giving up Chocolate.)

St. Paul’s Members and Guests Shrove Tuesday Feast February 21, 2012 6:00 pm Come feast with St. Paul’s Multiple Egg, Cheese, Bacon, Ham, Sausage, Bakes Blueberry Stuffed French Toast Fruit Tray Ice Cream! We have plenty of food—now we need plenty of eaters! There will be no soup supper on Ash Wednesday but there will be Church School at 5:15 1:30 Ash Wednesday service Midweek Service at URC 7:00 Ash Wednesday service at St. Paul’s

Christ's Grave in...Northern Japan.

I don't often do this, but I have to side with the Men In Black on this one . That's just scary that these Scientists are playing God with pathogens.

Most Pitchers and catchers report this week to Major League Baseball clubs. Spring Training begins in earnest in March. The Season begins in early April. I'm drooling over the release of the new MLB.TV . If you've never experienced it, it is, quite frankly, light years ahead of other pay per view options from other sports. (The NHL's is very close, as I watch the Winnipeg Jets regularly, but it is just not the same.)

Great footage of the choir at my former parish in Lincoln . They always had an incredible amount of talent for being such a small choir. Hat tip: Kurt Knecht

I remember watching Gary Carter play on TV when I was kid, particularly with those good Mets teams in the late 1980's. He was far too young, age 57.

MSNBC did an interesting report about Celebrity Rehab . It's short and vague and largely fluff, as is most reporting on any aspect of celebrities, but it is an interesting little bit about what Rehab is like for celebs and why they tend to relapse. In a word: power, money, and influence can buy you pretty much anything you want, including drugs. Something to think about as we approach Ash Wednesday and Lent.

The following is an open letter from Canon Andrew White, Anglican Vicar of Baghdad. I post it with permission so that people may understand the plight of Christians in the post-US occupied Iraq. -The Archer  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We Have Been Left and We Have Nothing! The exclamations of the Christians here in Iraq. None of us thought there would be any change here after the US troops left. They had not been seen on the streets for two years. We were totally wrong from the day that the US military left we were in total and disarray. Violence increased, religious sectarian increased again in force. We could not even enter the Green Zone, as any badges issued by the US were no longer valid, the new badges were simply not being issued. Total mayhem politically began with the prime minister issuing a warrant for the arrest of the Vice President Tariq Al Hashami. He was accused of terrorism and sadly there was a lot of ev...

Atheist Richard Dawkins gets his head handed to him in a debate with Father Giles Fraser . That's well worth listening to the first 4 minutes.

Who was Saint Valentine? St. Valentine was a priest near Rome in about the year 270 A.D, a time when the church was enduring great persecution. His ministry was to help the Christians to escape this persecution, and to provide them the sacraments, such as marriage, which was outlawed by the Roman Empire at that time. For his belief and practice, St. Valentine was arrested, and imprisoned for his refusal to deny Our Lord and embrace the Roman gods. While in prison, St. Valentine continued to minister, even witnessing to those who guarded him. One of the guards was a good man who had adopted a blind girl. He asked St. Valentine if his God could help his daughter. Valentine prayed and the girl was miraculously given her sight, demonstrating the power of the One True God. The guard and his whole family, 46 people in all, believed in Christ and were baptized. The emperor was furious about this, so he had St. Valentine beheaded. St. Valentine’s knew that he could be arrested for his be...

Holy Buckets!

I do not understand this mentality  in any way, shape, or form. I love my parents, but I would have absolutely died had my parents ever showed up to a job interview or at my college to advocate for me because I was too lazy to do it myself. Part of being a good parent is to let your kids grow up.

Father Tim down in Sioux Falls posted a link here about a new political science work that I have read a bit about. Specifically, it has to do with Charles Murray's Belmont and Fishtown theories. The article explains that. Of course, this article and its parent work are works of political science and analysis. As such, you have to take it with a grain of salt. I don't know if I buy it, particularly in its entirety, but it is interesting to think about. My one major quibble with it is what I told Father Tim in my Facebook comment response: "It is interesting what the author of that piece took from Putnam's book, Bowling Alone. The major blind spot in that analysis is that Putnam did not factor in the 4 Generational Cycle. You have your generations (in terms of their relationship to civic society) that tend to be either Joiners, Builders, Rebels/Questioners, and Dropouts. The Baby Boomers were the rebels, and the Generation X crowd were the dropouts. Putnam was doi...

The Braves have unveiled a new uniform , which (I think) harkens back to the classic 1950's Milwaukee Braves Uniforms. Simple yet understated. Take that, Florida Miami Marlins .

You get what you pay for .

"It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. "Food will not bring us close to God." We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols? So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed. But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall." -The First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians Foo...

My parents took this picture when they were on a cruise to the Cayman Islands a few weeks ago. I was amused...

"Most people today, due to a broadly secular mind-set and increasing spiritual ignorance, view the church with stunted vision. They often comprehend her historic sociological makeup – the church as human institution akin to the police force or civil service- whilst failing to grasp the deeper mystical reality, that thing which makes her so much more than the mere club or society of believers. It is hardly surprising for one requires living faith to truly understand this deeper mystical reality, the Christological nature and ontological purpose of the Church. Which is to state, ‘God conceives, creates and calls to himself a community of persons’. "That the Church is a mystical body, something founded and nurtured by God himself, is a belief rooted in the Old Testament where the gathered people of Israel, the assembly, perceived its character and purpose from the one who called it into life. Hence Jewish history is written with a transcendent emphasis. The events taking place...