On Thursday morning/afternoon, my Bible study convened at church. As usual, we discussed a vast array of issues. The Scriptural portion of the class focused on the “I am” statements in John 14:6 and John 15:1. We did have an intermission for MLM to go to the church’s cafeteria to procure lunch. This is what he returned with. He insists that part of this bounty was to serve as his wife’s dinner.
One of our discussion topics led MLM to have us watch the fifteen installment in the NOOMA DVD series entitled “You”. For the uninitiated, Nooma is a video series featuring Michigan evangelical Rob Bell which derives its name from the phonetic spelling of the Greek word for “spirit”, traditionally transliterated, pneuma. Bell, perhaps best known for his book Velvet Elvis, is one of the key figures in what some have dubbed the “emerging church.”
In this video, Bell went through a list of popular Christian sayings and showed how the early church borrowed them from the Roman culture and redefined them. Evidently the concept of Christianity revamping popular slogans is not new to the current generation of Christians. (See image for example.)
I agreed with the entire video. I would like to note that while the concepts of virgin birth and resurrection were not uncommon in Roman mythology, the concept of a loving God who died for humanity was unique. In my opinion, the most drastic borrowed term/image was that of the cross which went from representing the most heinous of deaths to the icon that Christians proudly display. Bell did not note this as it did not fit his thesis in this video. This is not a critique, simply a note to those who have seen this video and wondered if Christianity had any completely unique tenets.
Finally, speaking of trendy Christian reading, The Shack was referenced again in Bible study. I decided that it was time I read the book. I read the first 138 pages on Thursday and hope to complete the novel over the weekend. I admit that I enjoyed the thought provoking discussions in the text. My only complaint was that they reminded me of many of the things Dr. Claypool taught me and made me miss him. I can give a book no higher compliment than that.
Speaking of Dr. Claypool, he has a new book. On March 1st, his wife, Ann Wilkinson Claypool, posthumously released a series of sermons under the title The First to Follow: The Apostles of Jesus. Here’s hoping that Dr. Claypool has more posthumous work that Tupac! ( I wonder if those two have ever been compared previously...)
On Thursday night I met GAB, JB, JTH, and JBT at Applebees. We watched Oregon State upset #1 ranked USC, 27-21 in a monumental college football upset. It was a good night. Amy was our waitress, though AFH sat with us at a time in which she had no tables and gave me this Applebees pin. I may use it to replace the typical Applebees logo for the blog.
Finally, I heard on the radio that a survey concluded that 25% of North Americans had not read a book in the last year! Though it did not surprise me, it was still saddening to hear.
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