Bible Trivia - 4/24/2008

Question: How old was Sarah when God promised her a child before the same time next year?

Answer: 90 (Genesis 17:17)

Comments: Sarah is one of only two women whose age is documented in Scripture. The other is 84-year old Anna. (Luke 2:37) Evidently, even in the Biblical age it was inappropriate to cite a woman's age. More things one can learn from the Bible...

Word of the Day - 4/24/2008

Sobriquet

A sobriquet is a nickname.

Jesus bestowed the Aramaic sobriquet Boanerges ("Sons of Thunder") on brothers James and John. (Mark 3:17)

and James, the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James (to them He gave the name Boanerges, which means, "Sons of Thunder"); (Mark 3:17, NASB)

Some believe that the epithet was derived in deference to their temper (as exhibited in Luke 9:54) as the literal Aramaic means "Sons of Wrath."

In Eckleburg's Eyes - 4/24/2008

I spent Wednesday evening with my family, going out to eat and viewing a play.

My parents and I ate at the Ruby Tuesday Restaurant. The franchise is in poor shape, reporting on April 2 that their third-quarter income was less than half of what it was only a year earlier. It appears the local branch has changed considerably in response to the recent financial difficulties. From the looks of the menu, the establishment is returning to the franchise's original concept of offering a variety of handburgers. This particular location's look and feel have also significantly been upgraded.

We sampled their Spinach Artichoke Dip. It was not bad but failed an obvious dip test. When chips are exhausted before the dip, the dip is nothing special.

It was good to catch up with my parents. We were also privy to a loud talking patron evidently obsessed with the genealogy of one William Humprheys. I have no idea who he is, but I now know way too much about him.

We then met RLN, JSN and my cousins HANW, and HLN at the Clarence Brown Theatre for a presentation of “Guys and Dolls.” We met because I love plays and the show served double duty as a birthday celebration for my uncle, RLN.

Though the play is a classic, I was completely unfamiliar with it. The musical was first produced on Broadway at the 46th Street Theatre (now Richard Rodgers Theatre), opening on November 24, 1950. The play enjoyed an initial run of 1,201 performances and won five 1951 Tony Awards, including the award for Best Musical. I had thought about viewing the 1955 movie in preparation fot the show but did not want a local actor to have to contend with Marlon Brando’s portrayal of Sky Masterson. In watching the play, I found I was familiar with much of its memorable score including "A Bushel and a Peck" (Miss Adelaide, Hot Box Girls), "Luck Be a Lady" (Sky, Guys), and "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat" (Nicely, Company).

We sat in the front row. We did so to obtain seven seats together in a packed house. They actually were great. Recently, the theater removed its first two rows of seats, so the seats were not overly hard on our necks. We were directly in front of the orchestra pit.

My ever observant aunt noticed the irony that my mother (Dotty) was wearing a dotted shirt. SMA, could this look be the concept behind the "Dot Master" alter ego's costume?

I thoroughly enjoyed the performance. Guys and Dolls is a musical based on Damon Runyan (1884-1946)'s short story "The Idyll Of Miss Sarah Brown." It was the first musical based upon Runyon material, though he did not live to see it. Though “Guys and Dolls is often performed, it is only the second time in 25 years that UT has done so. The staging was highly elaborate with a cast of 33, a crew of 14 and over eighty costumes beutifully fashioned by costume designer Eric Abele.

Guys and Dolls is the love story between guy gamblers and the dolls who seek to tame them. The real action begins when Nathan Detroit (Adam Heffernan) bets fellow gambler Sky Masterson (portrayed by New York based actor Todd DuBail) that he cannot coerce the righteous sergeant of the local mission Sarah Brown (Lena Hurt) to go with him to Cuba.

I liked the first act and loved Act 2. Many aspects of the play are dated but it was still a highly enjoyable evening with my family. Ash Edwards (as Nicely-Nicely Johnson) has a rousing rendition of "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat" despite sounding eerily like Curly Howard of the Three Stooges.

Since the play features the salvation of sinners at a mission, it has many biblical overtures. I liked the theological concept voiced by the general that God can use even gabling for divine purposes. I did not like the message of marrying a man in hopes of changing him after marriage ("Marry the Man today rather than sign and sorrow/Marry the man today and change his ways tomorrow.") I know little of marriage, but I do know it is something to be entered based upon product not potential.

My favorite line of the play was from Joey Biltmore, who is the unseen voice talking to Nathan Detroit on the phone. He explains to Detroit that his sure bet with Masterson is uncertain as women are far less predicatble than horse racing. Amen. This play was clearly written by a man.

The play represents the last play of the 2007-2008 season. It began on April 10 and closes on April 27. It also represents th CBT show for the talented audience favorite Jessica Culaciati, Miss Adelaide in this production. She stole yet another show in this performance.

As this season ends, a new one has been announced. The Clarence Brown Theatre 's 2008-09 season consists of "Ain't Misbehavin'" (September 4-29), "The Secret Rapture" (October 15-26), "The Marriage of Bette and Boo" (October 30-November 17), "The Triumph of Love" (January 29-February 15, 2009), "Love's Labour's Lost" (February 26-March 14, 2009), "Copenhagen" (March 26-April 12, 2009), "Flyin' West" (April 2-12, 2009) and "Tommy" (April 16-May 3, 2009). If anyone wants to go, let me know.

Associated Baptist Press - 4/23/2008

Associated Baptist Press
April 23, 2008 (8-43)

IN THIS ISSUE:
Catholics, other religious voters propel Clinton to victory in Pa.
Olive wood brings prosperity to CBF-backed microenterprise
Opinion: Our theology of ecology should place us within creation
Corrections

Catholics, other religious voters propel Clinton to victory in Pa.
By Robert Marus

PHILADELPHIA (ABP) -- Religious voters -- especially the state’s all-important Catholic population -- appear to have given New York Sen. Hillary Clinton a big boost in the crucial April 22 Pennsylvania primary.

But most religious Catholics and most religious Protestants differed sharply in their support for Clinton and her rival, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

Exit polls in the Democratic presidential contest showed that an overwhelming majority of voters who identified themselves as Catholic cast their ballots for Clinton. Catholics -- who represented 36 percent of all Democratic voters -- chose her over Obama by a whopping 40-point margin, 70 percent to 30 percent.

Pennsylvania’s Protestants went for Clinton in percentages almost identical to that of the commonwealth’s overall Democratic electorate -- 55 percent to Obama’s 45 percent. After Catholics, they made up the next largest religious category in the primary, with 24 percent of the total.

Jews, who made up 8 percent of Pennsylvania’s Democratic turnout, favored Clinton 62-38 percent.

Only three broad religious categories favored Obama in the state. Those who said they were Christian but did not identify as Protestant, Catholic or Mormon made up 13 percent of voters, and they favored Obama by a 2-to-1 margin. He also had a 24-point edge among those listing no religious affiliation, who made up 10 percent of Pennsylvania Democrats. And the six percent of primary voters who listed a religious affiliation other than Christian, Mormon, Jewish or Muslim went for Obama 58-42 percent.

The one percent of Pennsylvania voters the exit polls identified as Muslim were not statistically significant enough to measure their support for the respective candidates.

When measured against rate of attendance at religious services, Clinton beat Obama in each of the commonwealth’s major categories except those who said they “never” attend worship -- a category he won by the same margin (55-45 percent) that he lost the overall primary.

Curiously, the worship-attendance category in which the candidates were most closely matched was among those who said they go to services more often than weekly. Clinton barely edged Obama among those voters 51-49 percent, according to the polls. However, they made up only 9 percent of those who cast ballots in the primary.

One sub-category in which the candidates were statistically tied -- at 50 percent each -- was the 9 percent of voters who said they are Protestant and attend church more than once a week.

Conversely, Catholics who said they attend Mass weekly or more often favored Clinton over Obama by a nearly 3-to-1 margin. They made up 18 percent of Democratic voters.

Blue-collar voters experiencing hard economic times -- who make up much of Pennsylvania’s Catholic vote – also preferred Clinton in overwhelming numbers.

Pennsylvania’s churchgoing vote for Clinton was in marked contrast to that of many earlier primary campaigns where Obama seemed to have erased her advantage among Catholics. In particular, Obama did well among Catholics in the Feb. 12 “Potomac Primary” contests in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia and the Feb. 19 Wisconsin primary.

But her margins among Pennsyvlania Catholics were even larger than they were in the two states she won March 5 with strong Catholic support: Texas and Ohio.

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Olive wood brings prosperity to CBF-backed microenterprise
By Melissa Browning


ATLANTA (ABP) -- For centuries, the olive branch has been a symbol of peace in Judeo-Christian cultures -- and now olive wood is bringing prosperity through a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-sponsored microenterprise project in the Middle East.

“Elizabeth” is one of CBF’s field personnel in the Middle East whose full name and specific location the organization does not publicize, citing security concerns. She regularly watches as lives are transformed through the simple process of creating and selling crafts from olive wood. In the project, individuals with disabilities and others who have been marginalized by their communities are able to work and provide for their families.

“For many, this is their family’s only source of income,” said Elizabeth. “The project not only provides employment, but it raises their self-esteem.”

In communities where jobs are scarce and many live in poverty, people with disabilities have a difficult time finding employment. In the microenterprise model, a sponsoring organization – such as a microfinance bank -- lends small amounts of money to people in developing countries as start-up funds for small businesses. For example, an initial loan of as little as $50 to a woman in many parts of Latin America, Africa, or Asia would enable her to open a business that, within a few months, could generate enough income to provide for her family’s basic needs, employ neighbors, repay the loan and qualify for another one.

Many non-profit groups have begun operating or investing in microfinance programs in the last 30 years. Such loans have demonstrated significant success in lifting small entrepreneurs and entire communities out of poverty while experiencing the dignity of self-sufficiency. In March, CBF officials announced that the organization had received a $500,000 gift designated for creating a way to invest in microfinance enterprises.

In the businesses Elizabeth has worked with, the women are able to work from home, sewing table runners or tote bags, or carving Christmas ornaments out of the olive wood. They then bring the products back into the shop where they are sold, primarily to overseas clients. From individual online orders to church sales, the linens, ornaments and Nativity sets that are created in this project represent a new way of life for the workers who create them.

For Elizabeth, the most important part of this whole project is the relationships. She said she loves to sit at a table with girls who are creating crafts or to visit the workers in their homes in the evenings. In fact, hospitality is one of the greatest lessons Elizabeth has learned from living in the Middle East.

“The people we work with, they have so little, but when they invite you into their homes, they share everything they have,” she said.

When she first began serving in the Middle East 11 years ago, Elizabeth said it took time for her to adjust to the new language and culture and she was often discouraged. With a medical background, Elizabeth’s ministry originally focused on medical missions. She continues to use her medical skills as she visits workers and their families, providing health education and screenings.

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Opinion: Our theology of ecology should place us within creation
By David Gushee

(ABP) -- During the most recent Earth Day April 22, Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection ran high-profile TV ads in which Newt Gingrich and Nancy Pelosi, and then Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson, sat together on couches telling the world of their shared concern about climate change.

To those who continue to take the “climate change is a dirty lie” line, you might want to reconsider whether you really want to find yourself to the right of Newt Gingrich and Pat Robertson on this issue.

The climate-change debate may be over, but the deeper theological problems that helped to get us here are definitely not resolved. It may be that the most important work that Christian ministers, scholars and other leaders can do on behalf of the climate and the creation is theological rather than activist. Many people can lobby for a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions. I have. I hope you will. But few have the authority and role to teach our nation’s majority Christian population to think differently about God’s creation. Theology matters. We neglect it at our peril.

The working theology of most Southern Baptist churches has been privatistic, other-worldly, and soteriological. Church is where you went to find out how you as an individual can find personal happiness and eternal life through a saving relationship with Christ. This goes back before the denominational split in the SBC. I remember being taught at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in the 1980s that every sermon must take the hearer to the Cross and to a personal decision in relation to the Cross. Another way it was said is that we must preach the gospel in every message through whatever text or issue happens to be before us.

This gospel had little or nothing to do with this world in itself. At most, the world was an inert backdrop against which the drama of individual salvation or damnation played itself out. Many of our most controversial theological debates, such as the Arminianism/Calvinism conflict that still afflicts so many Baptists, assume the same basic paradigm. Does God give us free will in choosing salvation or it is predetermined by God’s choice? At this very moment all over the nation you can find earnest young theologians engaged in coffee-shop arguments over this question—a question that once again leaves everything other than soteriology out of the picture altogether.

Somehow a theological paradigm got into our Protestant/Baptist/evangelical bloodstream in which the drama of personal salvation is all that really matters. Modern forms of that paradigm might jazz up the storytelling or extend the emphasis to lifestyle salvation and not just eternal salvation, but the basic paradigm remains the same.

We need a robust and contextually sensitive theology of creation that actually plays a working role in our daily practical theology. We need an updated theological anthropology that goes with that theology of creation. And, yes, we also need a theology of salvation that is congruent with this theology of creation and this anthropology.

When we have turned to creation, many Christians have embraced a fundamental God/world/humanity triple split. The transcendent God creates the “world” or “creation” or “nature.” This “world” contains many magnificent creatures and abundant beauty. Human beings are fundamentally distinct from both “world” and “Creator,” but have been declared by their Creator to stand in a relationship of dominion or rule over the “world” and its creatures. Meanwhile, what really matters theologically is the action between God and humanity, which is played out in the drama of sin, judgment and salvation.

This kind of theology separates human beings from the rest of the created order. We are perceived as “other” to the rivers and the otters and they are “other” to us. Moreover, we are seen as superior to the rivers and the otters and can freely exploit the “resources” they offer as we see fit.

Climate change is just one reminder that human beings are part of creation. So are the many toxins that turn out to be transmitted by every breastfeeding mother in the world to every nursing infant in the world. If we warm up the atmosphere, trigger more intense weather events, and alter rain patterns, we do it to ourselves. If we release toxins into our groundwater, soil and air, we do it to our nursing mothers and their babies.

Remember the bumper sticker “Save the babies, not the whales”? What a nice “pro-life” slam against those lefty environmentalists. But what if it turns out that you can’t save the babies unless you are also saving the whales? What if it turns out that we must save the health of the planetary ecosystems that sustain life for all creatures if we want to save our own lives?

This means more than the obvious but important reminder that caring for God’s creation is an aspect of a consistent pro-life ethic. The more fundamental point is theological. Human beings are unique in our status as imago dei and we are fellow-creatures with the millions of other species on this planet. And all creatures depend for their life and health on the well being of the air, land, sea, forests, climate and so on.

The interconnectedness of all living things can no longer be seen as an airy slogan of a few dreamers. It is a fact established by hard experience. When China belches dirty coal, Los Angeles gets asthma, and all of us live on a planet a little bit hotter than the year before. It is time that our theology caught up with both scripture and the facts on the ground.

-30-

-- David Gushee is distinguished university professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University. www.davidpgushee.com

Corrections

By ABP staff

Please make the following corrections in the April 22 ABP release.

In the opinion column “Discipleship and the ‘outside world,’” please change “dean of the University of Chicago Divinity School” in the 4th paragraph to “president of the Chicago Theological Seminary.”

In “Rival Mo. conservative groups agree to ‘peace committee,’ an editing error created an incorrect characterization of a quotation in the 17th paragraph. Please replace the first sentence in that paragraph with the following:

Davidson said that he is unaware of anything that would prevent MBLA from continuing to distribute statements critical of SOC, hold regional rallies and maintain its “Right to Know” website during the peace committee process.

-30-

View from 315A

The Tennessee men’s basketball program signed their biggest recruit in the Bruce Pearl era today as Scotty Hopson finally inked his National Letter of Intent at an 11 a.m. press conference in the University Heights Academy gymnasium.

Hopson’s signing completed Tennessee’s signing class for next season. Here is a look at the four recruits in the order they signed.

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1.Philip Jurick
6'10" Center. East Ridge High School Pioneers. Chattanooga, TN
Verbal Commitment: 4/25/2007. Signed: 11/14/2007.

Philip Jurick is listed at 6-10, 250 pounds and was one of the most highly rated prospects in Tennessee's class of 2008. At he time of his signing, Rivals.com rated him a four star player and ranked him 35th on their list of top 150 players in the nation. Scout.com also rated him at four stars.

As a junior, he averaged 16 points, 15 rebounds and 9 blocked shots per game. His final two choices were narrowed to Tennessee and Indiana, after having eliminated Kentucky and Florida. Kentucky was thought to be the primary competition for Jurick before the departure of Tubby Smith.

Bruce Pearl saw him play several times, including his school’s first ever state sectional during the 2006-2007 season. The Pioneers lost in overtime but Jurick scored a game high fifteen points.

Jurick is not a great athlete, but he is very physical and can score with either hand in the low post. According to Rivals, his rebounding is already outstanding, which is something Tennessee has drastically needed under Bruce Pearl. His shooting and post moves, however, need work.

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2. Renaldo Woolridge
6'8" Forward. Harvard-Westlake School Wolverines. North Hollywood, CA
Verbal Commitment: 10/18/2007. Signed: 11/14/2007.

Renaldo Woolridge is a 6'8" power forward. He has great basketball bloodlines. His father, Orlando Woolrdige was the #6 pick in the 1981 draft out of Notre Dame. He played thirteen seasons in the NBA (1981-1994) and scored 13,623 points. His brother Zach Woolridge is a 6'6" guard for the Princeton Tigers. Renaldo grew up with his mother, Pat(ricia) Jackson, who is divorced, older brother, Zach, and sister, Tiana. Renaldo only occasionally visits Orlando, who lives in Texas, during summer and spring breaks.

He also comes from a highly prolific basketball high school. Harvard-Westlake produced recent stars Jason Collins and Jarron Collins (Stanford), Bryce Taylor (Oregon) and Alex Stepheson (North Carolina). All have had their numbers retired by the high school.

Woolridge chose the Volunteers over his hometown Southern California and and powerhouse Georgetown due to Tennessee’s style of play and family atmosphere. He took his official visit to Tennessee on October 4. Tony Jones was the lead recruiter.

Woolridge was a late bloomer. He averaged less than five munites per game as a sophomore before a breakout junior season that saw him average 19.2 points and 7.9 rebounds. He began high school as a 6'1" freshman. He is now 6'8.” He recalled, ``My mom is tall, 6-1, and I can remember telling her every morning that I was getting closer and closer to catching up with her and passing her.”

At the time of his signing, Rivals ranked the long, slender forward at 4-stars and lists him as the 59th best player in the 2008 class and the 10th best small forward.

For YouTube highlights of Renaldo Woolridge, click here.

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3. Daniel West
6'1" Point Guard. Saginaw High School Trojans. Saginaw, Michigan.
Verbal Commitment: 3/4/2008. Signed: 4/16/2008.

Daniel West is the lowest rated UT signee in a class projected in the national top-10. He earned only a three-star rating from Rivals.com. Some, including Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl, attribute this to his absence from last summer’s AAU tour. He refrained from the AAU league in an effort to improve his academic standing. In December, he took the ACT hoping to score 18 so he could play college basketball as a freshman. He scored a 22.

West originally accepted a scholarship to Bradley University on 10/18/2006 (before his junior season). But as his junior year ended, Bradley called and reneged. Saginaw coach Lou Dawkins speculated that Bradley had had some difficulties with basketball recruits meeting academic requirements and did not want to take a chance on the same thing happening with West.

West’s Saginaw Trojans (27-1) repeated as Michigan Class A champion by routing Detroit Pershing 90-71 in the championship game. West scored 21 points and added six assists in the title game. Saginaw also avenged its only season loss to city rival Arthur Hill with two wins by scores of 82-54 and 81-66. Saginaw compiled a 52-2 record in West’s last two seasons.

Despite being selected to the Detroit Free Press All-State boys basketball Dream Team and averaging 15 points, 11 assists and six steals as a senior, West was overshadowed by his teammates. Michigan State signee, 6'7" power forward Draymond Green and two Division I-level junior prospects also starred for the Trojans. Saginaw finished the season as the nation’s No. 4 high school team, according to USA Today. Rivals.com ranked the school No. 5 in its final poll.

West verbally committed to the Vols after his official visit saw Tennessee defeat Kentucky at Thompson Boling Arena on March 2. West is projected to contend for the starting point guard position with fellow Michigan native Ramar Smith. At the very least, West is expected to earn double-digit minutes in the Vols' 10-man rotation as Tennessee is in desperate need of a true point guard and West fits the bill. He can knock down both three-point baskets and more importantly free throws.

West will be in Knoxville in June to participate in the Rocky Top League. Further aiding his prospects are that J.P. Prince — one of UT’s two returning point guards — had arthroscopic, reconstructive left shoulder surgery Friday (4/11) and is expected to miss three or four months.

For YouTube highlights of Daniel West, click here.

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4. Scotty Hopson
6'6" Guard. University Heights Academy Blazers. Hopkinsville, KY.
Verbal Commitment: 4/1/2008. Signed: 4/23/2008.

Scotty Hopson became the first McDonald's All-American to sign with Tennessee since Vincent Yarbrough (1998-2002) in 1997. He joins Allan Houston (1989) as only the second McDonald’s All-America from the state of Kentucky to sign with Tennessee

The 6-foot-7, 185-pound guard averaged 24.3 points, 11.3 rebounds, three blocks and three assists as a senior. Hopson’s team, The Blazers, won the All “A” Classic title and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the state tournament. His number 32 was retired by the school.

As a McDonald's All-America selection, he finished third in their dunk contest and scored 10 points for the West squad. A second team Parade All-America, Hopson had a team-high 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting to lead the Blue team to a 124-114 victory at the 2008 Jordan Brand Classic April 19 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

He is rated as the No. 9 overall recruit in his class by Rivals.com and No. 11 player in the Class of 2008 by Scout.com. He had countless offers, including Kentucky, Texas, Louisville, Mississippi State and Cincinnati. Hopson had committed to Mississippi State on October 23 but reopened his recruitment and later committed to UT on April 1.

Hopson, who was named The Associated Press' Kentucky Boys High School Player of the Year on Monday (4/21), is expected to immediately fill the void left by the loss of graduating seniors Chris Lofton and JaJuan Smith.

For YouTube highlights of Scotty Hopson, click here.

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All four signees will be playing in the Rocky Top Basketball League which begins on June 16 at Bearden High School.

Bible Trivia - 4/23/2008, #2

Question: Which one of the other apostles was an uncle of John Mark?

Answer: Barnabas. (Colossians 4:10)

Comments: At the conclusion of Paul's letter to the Colossians, he notes a familial connection between Barnabas and John Mark. The King James Version renders the relation as "sister's son." The KJV is in the minority on this interpretation.

Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, sends you his greetings; and also Barnabas's cousin Mark (about whom you received instructions; if he comes to you, welcome him); (Colossians 4:10, NASB)

John Mark and Barnabas probbably were cousins. The King James Version and Young's Literal Translation are two of the few translations that present Barnabas as the uncle. The ASV, CEV, Darby, ESV, The Message, NASB, NCV, NIV, NKJV, NLT, NLV, NRSV, RSV all render anepsios as "cousin."

The Greek anepsios is used only here in the New Testament. The word is a compound of a (as a particle of union) and an obsolete nepos (a brood). While it is rare in the canon, it appears frequently in extant literature. From its apperance in Homer's Iliad (9.464, 15.554), Herodotus & Aeschylus, the Septuagint (Number 36:11, Tobit 7:2), Josephus (Jewish Wars 1.662, Antiquities of the Jews 1.290, 15.250), Philo (On the Embassy to Gaius 67), etc. the interpreter can conclude that it consistently carried the connotation of cousin. Virtually all modern translations reflect this view.

In her unrelated article, "Greek Kinship Terminology", Molly Miller acknowledges that there is some grounds for the KJV interpretation. "Anepsios varies between cousin-german and nephew." (The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 73, (1953), p. 46.)

The Amplified Bible avoids the debate by translating with the simple "relative." That John Mark was some relation to Barnabas is clear, even if we do not know the exact relationship. This fact illuminates Barnabas' defense of Mark in Acts 15:37-38.

Bible Trivia - 4/23/2008

Question: When Jesus saw Nathanael a second time, where did he say he had seen him previously?

Answer: Under a fig tree. (John 1:48)

Comments: When Jesus first meets Nathanael, he impresses him by mentioning Nathanel's previous presence under a fig tree. Jesus' reference to the fig tree in his encounter with Nathanael in John 1:48 has been the cause of much speculation amongst Johannine scholars.

Nathanael said to Him, "How do You know me?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." (John 1:48, NASB)

Many theories have been posited as to the significance of the fig tree. Here are some:

• The most common explanation is that Nathanael was studying Scripture. Beneath the shade of a fig tree was a traditional place for the study of the Torah. Rabbinic literature compares the law to the fig tree and the fig tree was sometimes considered a place for prayer and meditation. The fig tree was used as shade for teaching or studying by the later rabbis (Midrash Rabbah on Ecclesiastes 5:11, see also see John Lightfoot, Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica, vol. 3, pp. 246-47). Also, the fig tree was symbolic for messianic peace and plenty (See Micah 4:4, Zechariah 3:10).
  
• J. Ramsey Michaels sees Nathanel as “representative of the true Israel” and the fig tree as an allusion to Hosea 9:10. (“Nathanael Under the Fig Tree”, Expository Times 78 (66-67), pp. 182-183.)
  
• Joachim Jeremias (1900-1979) saw the fig tree as a confession of sin and assurance of forgiveness. He incorporated Psalm 32 into his analysis. ("Die Berufng des Nathanael", Angelos 3 1928, pp. 2-5).
  
• Some have downplayed its signifiicance. For examples, see Robert Kysar’s John the Maverick Gospel (p. 41) and John Henry Bernard's commentary on St. John (p. 1:63).
  
• C.F.D Moule (1907-2007) introduces the less imaginative explanation that the fig tree presents Jesus' accurate knowledge of person’s movements in his article "A note on ‘Under the Fig Tree’ in John 1.48, 50" [Journal of Theological Studies 5 (1954): pp. 210-11].

Johannine guru Raymond E. Brown (1928-1998) acknowledges, "We are far from exhausting the suggestions, all of which are pure speculation." (The Gospel According to John, vol. 1, p. 83).

In the end, Moule is certainly on the right track as his theory places the emphasis on Jesus. D. A. Carson (b. 1946) explains, "John’s chief point here is Jesus’ supernatural knowledge, not Nathanael’s activity" (The Gospel According to John, p. 161).

Word of the Day - 4/23/2008

Decollate

To decollate is to behead; decapitate.

Herod had John the Baptist decollated. (Matthew 14:10, Mark 6:16, Luke 9:9)

In Eckleburg's Eyes - 4/23/2008

I spent Tuesday night with WAM, KLT, KJW, and RAW. We met at RAW’s house and then progressed to Sir Goony’s Family Fun Center. When KJW and RAW arrived from the gym, I discovered that this is the first week KJW has had her hair in pig tails. Admittedly, they are very short pig tails, but pig tails nevertheless. Just when I thought the child could not get any cuter...

Sir Goony’s is actually located adjacent to RAW’s backyard. If and when he constructs a bridge across "his" creek, it will be accessible by foot. For now, we drive. I explain its propinquity to interpret why we decided to play the most poorly kept miniature golf course in America. The water in the water feature is literally black. Thus, “Black Water” is not just a Doobie Brothers song, but also a landmark. While the song dates me, I would not be surprised if the park had not seen a maintenance worker since it was originally popular.

KJW “played” some too. She was even supplied a miniature (even for mini golf) club and an orange ball - her favorite color. Her Vol obsessed grandfather must be so proud. (Note: This photo was taken after she “traded” balls with her mother.)

As usual, I finished dead last. I was magnificent on the front nine holes. I was in first place and had hit three holes in one, including acing the very first two holes. My downfall can be attributed to two factors: 1. I am not a very good golfer and 2. I become increasingly impatient as the game goes on. Though I enjoy playing (the trip was my idea), nine holes is about my limit. I still finished seven under par. About that...

RAW, our official scorer and most competitive player since SMA is in another state, made the executive decision to add one to each par. This was attributed to the course's deplorable condition significantly enhancing the degree of difficulty. To be honest, KJW also became a significant obstacle as the night wore on. See photo. Amazingly, she was not hit all night.

Naturally, RAW won the game.

Afterwards, the gang went to Chick-fil-A. I would love to tell you it was to support a great Christian organization, but on this night it was because the restaurant comes equipped with a play set. We needed one for an increasingly restless KJW. It was a good choice as we ended with a tantrum free night. Who could ask for anything more?

Associated Baptist Press - 4/22/2008

Associated Baptist Press
April 22, 2008 (8-42)

IN THIS ISSUE:
Rival Mo. conservative groups agree to ‘peace committee’
N.C. college receives donation of 1686 Luther Bible translation
Sudanese Baptists reunite after years-long division
Opinion: Discipleship and the ‘outside world’

Rival Mo. conservative groups agree to ‘peace committee’
By Bill Webb

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (ABP) -- Seven members of rival conservative groups in the Missouri Baptist Convention will go to mediation in an effort to bring about peace within the battle-torn statewide group.

The MBC Executive Board voted on April 15 to create a “peace committee” that will submit to Christian mediation through Peacemaker Ministries. The Billings, Mont., organization focuses on Bible-based conflict resolution.

The committee makeup and its methodology were proposed by Executive Board member Jody Shelenhamer, a layman from First Baptist Church of Bolivar, Mo., according to MBC president Gerald Davidson.

Shelenhamer proposed four members who have been associated with the Missouri Baptist Laymen’s Association (MBLA). Three others represented a group called Save Our Convention (SOC), which has criticized what it calls an inordinate amount of control in convention life by a small group of MLBA adherents.

The Laymen’s Association led a successful effort in the late 1990s to wrest control of the convention from the moderates that had dominated its leadership. However, SOC supporters -- many of whom were foot soldiers in the association’s battle against moderates -- have taken issue with their former allies on a handful of issues in the past year.

Save Our Convention successfully swept officer elections during last fall’s MBC annual meeting. That is proof, they say, that rank-and-file Missouri Baptists have grown weary of intra-conservative dissension and of what they say is a tightening of trustee representation on boards and agencies.

All seven members of the committee are men.

The four closely identified with the current Laymen’s Association leadership include Roger Moran, the organization’s founder and research director; Jay Scribner, retired pastor of First Baptist Church of Branson, Mo; Jeff White, pastor of South Creek Church in Springfield, Mo.; and Jeff Purvis, pastor of First Baptist Church of Herculaneum-Peveley, Mo.

The Save Our Convention representatives are John Marshall, pastor of Second Baptist Church of Springfield and the current MBC second vice president; Bruce McCoy, pastor of Canaan Baptist Church in St. Louis and current first vice president; and Wesley Hammond, pastor of First Baptist Church of Paris, Mo.

Two weeks prior to the Executive Board meeting, MBLA supporter Kent Cochran, a member of Calvary Baptist Church in Republic, Mo., proposed a similar committee, modeled after the 1985 Southern Baptist Convention Peace Committee.

Cochran’s proposal, which he mailed to every member of the Executive Board, called for a committee to “research the perceptions, activities, expectations, history, present and future of Missouri Baptists focusing particularly on the three issues of: theology, methodology, political activity and any related matters that involve Missouri Baptist life.”

“I’m hopeful that it will work,” Davidson told Associated Baptist Press. But the effort will have to be more successful than the SBC peace committee, which resulted in one side winning and the other withdrawing from the SBC, he said.

Davidson, the retired pastor of First Baptist Church of Arnold, Mo., was himself once a supporter of the Laymen’s Association’s efforts to drive moderates out of MBC leadership. But he became one of Save Our Convention’s organizers last year, and he said he believes the solution to the impasse between Missouri conservatives is not complex.

“We don’t have any big differences except in turning loose and letting Missouri Baptists make Missouri Baptist decisions they think are under the leadership of the Holy Spirit,” he said.

“People have to say, ‘Hey, we’re going to have to quit fighting,” Davidson continued. “I’m tired of all the bickering, fussing and fighting.

But, he added, “I am strongly opposed to a handful…taking control” of the convention – a situation Davidson pledged to continue working against.

As far as he is concerned, Davidson said, MBLA may continue to distribute statements critical of SOC, hold regional rallies and maintain its “Right to Know” website during the peace committee process. And if SOC organizers choose to reactivate their organization, they could do the same.

He said there is no timetable for completion of the committee’s work.

The SBC Peace Committee was launched in 1985, submitted its final report in 1987 and asked the Southern Baptist Convention to extend it another three years to monitor response to its recommendations.

But many moderates protested the committee’s final report, which they said was unfairly weighted toward conservatives. Most of them eventually left the SBC for moderate organizations, such as the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the Alliance of Baptists and the historic state conventions in Texas and Virginia.

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N.C. college receives donation of 1686 Luther Bible translation
By Teresa Buckner

MARS HILL, N.C. (ABP) -- Across the centuries, across the ocean, through bombings and world wars, a sacred bit of history has emerged from the distant past to find a home at Mars Hill College.

The North Carolina Baptist school has received a 1686 copy of Martin Luther’s Bible translation. It was donated by Elfriede Ludwig Wilde, a resident of Texarkana, Texas, and former resident of Hendersonville, N.C.

She gave the rare book in memory of her late husband, Harold Wilde, and in honor of the Wilde family of Western North Carolina, where Mars Hill is located.

Elfreide Wilde has been in possession of the Bible since 1967. “The time has come for this Bible to find a new and permanent home, Mars Hill College,” she said, in presenting the gift. “So I am passing on to you as a gift this special book that the Lord has protected again and again for 321 years.”

It is unknown how many copies of the translation still exist. But other aspects of the volume make it valuable, including its sheer size, its ornate drawings, its thick leather binding, and the brass moldings on its cover.

Although the Bible was passed down to Wilde through her family, her husband’s ancestry is closely tied to Mars Hill and its environs. Harold Wilde’s family has been present in western North Carolina since the late 1700s. The Wilde family was involved in the college’s early activities, and was closely tied through marriage to the school’s founding Sams family.

Genealogy connected Elfreide Wilde to the school more recently, when she met Darryl Norton, Mars Hill’s director of auxiliary services, as part of his personal genealogical research. It was through their friendship that she came to the conclusion that the school and the book would be a good fit for each other. Knowing the history of the college and its Baptist heritage, she decided that the gift of the Bible would be a proper way to honor her deceased husband and his family.

The receipt of such a valuable gift carries with it a solemn duty, according to Mars Hill President Dan Lunsford. “There is every reason to believe that this Bible could have been destroyed many times in the three centuries since its publication,” Lunsford said. “The fact that it has now come to us at Mars Hill College means that we are the custodians of a rare treasure. We therefore owe a duty to those people through whose hands this Bible has passed, to preserve it for all the people of the present and the future who will learn from its pages.”

Believing that God intended the Bible to be accessible to the masses, Martin Luther translated it into vernacular German in the 15th century. The translation was first printed by Johann Andreas Endters, a publishing house in Nuremberg, Germany.

According to Elfreide Wilde, nobody knows who the first owner of this Bible was. It was most likely a nobleman or wealthy merchant, because the average citizen in those days could not afford to own a book, even if he or she could read.

By the 1930s, the Bible had made its way to a suburb of Stuttgart, Germany, where it belonged to a good friend of Wilde’s grandfather, known only as Mr. Neff. Her grandfather, Adolf Ludwig, also had an ancient Bible, printed only a few years later than Neff’s copy.

Wilde said her father and Neff compared their Bibles often and found that, though the translation of the text was the same, the Bibles had different features. For example, Neff’s Bible had an indexed drawing of the city of Jerusalem. It also contained elaborate drawings of several Old Testament characters, including Moses and Elijah, with notations that the drawings were reproduced from “ancient libraries.”

One of the most striking features of Neff’s Bible, however, was an unusual and detailed drawing of Noah’s Ark by artist Joseph Fuerttenbach. With the drawing is a description of the ark written by Martin Luther.

During the World War II bombings of Stuttgart, more than 60 percent of the city was destroyed, but Neff’s house was spared. Even after the Ludwigs moved to the country, they kept in touch with Neff. Occasionally they made the arduous journey into town -- by train, by bus and on foot -- to see their friend.

Under the regime of Adolf Hitler, many of Germany’s religious artifacts were destroyed, but Neff’s Bible was spared. When Neff died, Ludwig inquired about his friend’s Bible. Like many young Germans following the war, the Neffs’ only son had renounced his Lutheran faith. He said Ludwig should get the book if he wanted it because he planned to destroy it.

Despite their war-induced state of malnutrition, Wilde’s grandparents carried the large Bible back home -- by train, by bus and on foot.

According to Wilde, Ludwig told her that he wanted her to have the Bible after his death. But there was a stipulation. “I had to promise that I would never sell the Bible for profit,” she said. “If I ever should decide to sell it, the money would have to go to the Lord. Even though I encountered hard times in my life, I kept the promise.”

When her grandfather died in 1967, Wilde was living in America, and circumstances prevented her from attending the funeral. Still, her father and a friend in Germany remembered Ludwig’s wish for Wilde to have the Bible. They tried to mail it to the United States, but the postmaster refused to accept it, saying that the post office could not insure so valuable an item. Wilde’s friend wrote to her, describing the trouble with transporting the Bible. At that point, Wilde assumed the family would donate the Bible to a church in Germany.

About three months later, a large, plain box arrived on Wilde’s doorstep with a German customs declaration stating the box contained “old books.” It was her grandfather’s Bible, which had traveled, at book rate, by ship from Germany, then over land to Arkansas. There was no indication on the package of insurance or its valuable contents.

Mars Hill officials are currently having the Bible restored. The process is scheduled to be completed in late September or early October.

Wilde said that she and her family made the decision to donate the Bible to Mars Hill College, in part, because they wanted it to be protected. Her wish is also that religion and history students may use the Bible for scholarly research.

Most importantly, Wilde said, she feels that her gift was divinely directed. She believes that, in giving the Bible to Mars Hill, she has followed the leading of God and that she has kept the promise made so many years ago to her grandfather. “This is what he would have wanted, for this Bible to be kept in a place where it would be honored,” she said.

“This Bible has been through so many tribulations, but wherever it has been, it has seemed that there was a protection around it,” she said. “Now, I wish for that protection to rest on Mars Hill College.”

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-- Teresa Buckner is media coordinator for Mars Hill College.

Sudanese Baptists reunite after years-long division
By Robert Marus

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (ABP) -- After years of division precipitated by one of history’s deadliest civil wars, Sudanese Baptists have finally -- like their nation -- reunited.

The reunification of the Sudan Interior Church North and the Sudan Interior Church South took place during a series of meetings April 1-5, in the southern Sudanese city of Renk, according to a Baptist World Alliance news release.

The occasion was one of “jubilation and praises to God for his goodness,” said Ramadan Chan, who was elected by the reunified denomination as general secretary.

According to BWA, there are about 45,000 baptized believers and 225 churches in the reunited denomination. The BWA release said the northern church is growing quickly, expanding from 15,000 baptized believers in 2000 to 21,000 in 2007.

The reunion meeting culminated a process begun with a series of talks a year earlier. Sudanese Baptist leaders had long hoped to recombine the separate conventions. They insist the division was borne of administrative necessity, after thousands of Christians were displaced from the north as a result of the 12-year-long Second Sudanese Civil War.

The war pitted the mainly Arab and Muslim north of the vast nation against the mainly Christian and animist ethnic blacks of the south. It took an estimated 2 million lives and caused about 4 million more Sudanese to be displaced between 1983 and 2005.

The displaced included many Baptists, and many of them formed churches in Kenyan and Ethiopian camps for Sudanese refugees.

“The scattering of the church necessitated the development of a second administrative center based in Nairobi, Kenya,” said Elijah Brown, a Texas Baptist who has studied Sudanese Christians and sits on BWA’s freedom and justice commission.

The establishment of the Sudan Interior Church South “was a pragmatic attempt to minister to a dispersed church divided by warring factions,” Brown said. He has submitted to the University of Edinburgh a doctoral thesis on the role of the Sudanese church in the war.

BWA, the worldwide umbrella group for national and regional Baptist denominations, accepted the Sudan Interior Church as a whole as a member body in 2000, even though the two branches had not been officially reunited.

BWA officials have paid close attention to Sudan during its war years and after, which have included repeated accusations that the Arab-dominated government in the north has oppressed Sudanese people of non-Muslim religions.

In recent years, international human-rights groups and Western governments have denounced Sudan for supporting genocidal Arab gangs carrying out a campaign of extermination of ethnic blacks in the Darfur region of western Sudan.

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Opinion: Discipleship and the ‘outside world’
By Beth Newman

(ABP) -- Quite by coincidence, I had just finished reading Carolyn Jessup’s Escape when the news stories broke about the raids on the Texas ranch of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints. The “escape” of the book’s title is from an abusive, polygamous marriage. Yet there was for me an unexpected coda to Jessup’s story. Her eldest daughter, on turning 18, returned to her father and the Fundamentalist Mormon Church.

The FLDS makes an easy target. If the reports of child abuse are true, then of course the state has an overriding interest in intervention. But it seems to be a routine part of every discussion of the Texas situation to observe that among the sins, real or imagined, of that ranch was its prohibition of contact between the Mormons who lived there and something called the “outside world.”

That division is a particularly tricky one, and believers in any faith would do well to pause over it for a moment.

In a column published a couple of years ago, Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, dean of the University of Chicago Divinity School, wondered whether children might not possess the right to be exposed to varying points of view, a right presumably denied to them by fundamentalist parents. That is, the public good requires that each of us be prepared to participate fully within the rules of a secular, pluralist society. According to Thistlethwaite’s logic, aren’t such children victims of child abuse?

To cite a less academic but more contemporary source, comedian Bill Maher recently wondered why the Texas pedophiles were being prosecuted while Pope Benedict was being lionized. After all, he observed, child abuse was much more widespread with the Catholic church than among a few hundred misguided Texans.

This is the issue for me. Progressives, such as Maher and Thistlethwaite, and fundamentalists are offended by the same thing: that there are people who think differently than they do.

Here let me return to the example of Carolyn Jessup’s daughter. It may well be that this young woman is continuing to live out the results of a life of abuse. She may be so broken by her experiences that she cannot understand her own self-interests. Or it may be that she has decided the life lived out by the Fundamentalist Mormon Church is in fact the life that most faithfully reflects the call of God. From the outside, how can any of us know?

It is not difficult, however, for even the most mainline of current denominations to look back and discover when it was maligned by slander. It is even easier to discover when our churches were guilty of real crimes; remember where the “Southern” part of the Southern Baptist name came from.

All in all, the difficulties of the Christian churches have not been that we were not open to the outside world, but that we accommodated ourselves far too well.

With this in mind, I think we, as Christians, need to see the Fundamentalist Mormons -– alien as they might seem to be to us -– as our brothers and sisters in Christ. While the teachings of Joseph Smith are heretical (or not fully scriptural), heresy nonetheless belongs in some sense in the Christian tradition. Polygamous Mormons in particular raise the question of what constitutes Christian marriage.

Lest we see them as too “other” in their practice, some ethicists today have observed that we are living in a culture that increasingly practices “serial polygamy.”

The Christian reason for monogamy is that we are to be faithful to our spouse as God is faithful to the church, the one body of Christ. Thus, monogamous marriage is directly linked to the oneness of the church.

Of course, one might readily observe that God seems more like a polygamist today: having many, many churches. And some theologians have gone so far as to compare the crucifixion to child abuse. Such “polygamy,” however, has more to do with our adultery and idolatry than with God’s desire to have many partners. In the book of Hosea, the faithless wife (Israel) is restored when God says: “And in that day, says the Lord, you will call me, ‘My husband,’ and no longer will you call me, ‘My Baal.’ For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name no more” (Hosea 2:1-17).

Our faithlessness cannot defeat the faithfulness of God. This fact is most fully displayed in the crucifixion, which is not an angry Father punishing his Son, but God’s own willingness to enter, heal and defeat our brokenness and sin “from the inside.” This astounding gift frees us to live more faithfully as Christ’s body for the world.

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-- Beth Newman is professor of theology and ethics at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. bnewman@btsr.edu

WAM Quote of the Day - 4/22/2008

On Tuesday night, WAM accompanied a group to Sir Goonys for a game of miniature golf. The WAM Quote of the Day occurred before we even left the house. KLTW had just returned from a hard day's work and was griping about a young technician who loathes working with students despite the fact that she was one less than a year ago. WAM's immediate response:

"That brown nosing whore!"

There are times when people appreciate my impartial, let's look at it from both sides attitude. On this night, I think WAM's opinion was exactly what KLTW needed.

Prayer Blog - 4/22/2008, #2

I have agreed to fill the pulpit at Southside Baptist Church in Newport, Tennessee, on June 8 as their pastor CWB will be out of town. Pray for this engagement as I have yet to preach a good sermon at this venue despite repeated attempts.

Prayer Blog - 4/22/2008

Having heard rumors of HBT having an illness for about a week, I finally got ahold of the elusive professor on Monday night.

HBT has been diagnosed with polycythemia, a condition in which there is a net increase in the total number of blood cells in the body. Though he is being treated with chemotherapy, this is actually better than the alternative.

His count was high at a routine January check up and his doctor (Rose) had him return at intervals of two and three weeks. Knowing him, his doctor knew that his ailment was not stress related and ordered a bone marrow aspiration. The two alternatives were polycythemia and chronic myelogenous leukemia. Needless to say, he was thrilled when he discovered he had polycythemia.

He began taking chemotherapy in pill form on April 5. When he began, his count was at 563. After ten days of treatment it was already down to 505. Yesterday (4/21), he had it checked again and again the number had decreased to 488. These numbers are clearly heading in the right direction.

Please pray for the continued improvement in his condition.

Bible Trivia - 4/22/2008

Question: How many times does Jesus use the term "born again" in the Bible?

Answer: 1. (John 3:3)

Comments: The Christian expression "Born Again" does originate with Jesus, but he never stressed the phrase. In fact, it is found on his lips in only one canonical gospel - John. (It also resurfaces in I Peter - 1:3, 1:23.)

Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3, NASB)

Jesus utters the term "born again" while teaching Nicodemus, a Pharisee (a very educated branch of Judaism). It is significant that Jesus uses the phrase with this audience as he challenges the traditional Jewish notion that salvation was rooted in "the seed of Abraham" - a physical lineage . In contrast, Jesus poses that one must be born a second time via a spiritual rebirth.

The term gained great popularity in Evangelical circles with the publication of a book titled Born Again in 1976. Charles W.Colson (b. 1931)'s book describes the Watergate conspirator and convicted felon's conversion in conjunction with his criminal imprisonment. The book played a significant role in solidifying "Born Again" as a cultural construct in the United States.

Word of the Day - 4/22/2008

Tetrad

A tetrad is a group of four.

A paralytic carried by a tetrad of his friends was lowered through a roof and healed by Jesus. (Mark 2:3)

In Eckleburg's Eyes - 4/22/2008

I had a great Monday, spent catching up with a lot of people.

My Monday Bible Study was moved to the Great American Steak & Buffet Co.. As you might have guessed, I picked the new locale. While this did not particularly help the Bible study, a wide range of topics were discussed including an especially enlightening talk about drug use.

Before leaving the church, I saw GWS and he has yet to select a grandfather name for himself. A good grandfather name is a must for any one assuming the role. I suggested the Cajun version since he is an LSU graduate and I learned that “Paw Paw” is the most common Cajun appellation. I am not sold on this. Any suggestions?

I really have way too much time on my hands...

On Monday night, I delivered some chicken pot pies to KTH as they will be easy for her husband to reheat during her convalescence from knee replacement surgery. She looks great, though her knee is still badly bruised. She even answered the door (on crutches) when I knocked! This fact alone probably means that my visit did more harm than good.

I then visited with my uncle JHV and my cousins JEV and LAV. My aunt LAMV was ill upstairs. LAV’s baby, WV was naturally also there. It had been far too long since I have visited. WV was a little apprehensive at first, but he came closer to me as the evening wore on, as evidenced by these photos.

It is hard to believe that we will be celebrating his first birthday on May 3rd.

As LAV told me about surviving a car wreck and getting a tattoo, I realized how long it had been since I had seen her since those events occurred in February. She was t-boned at the 7300 block of Kingston Pike. The wreck was not her fault and she was uninjured. Accidents are always unpleasant but are much less traumatic when those two factors are involved. Besides, she received a new (to her, it is a 2002) car out of the ordeal.

Her tattoo is of a flower and a snake and it occupies the better part of her torso. Like her brother, it was acquuired at Biotech Organic Art. She has divulged its meaning to no one but has given me permission to concoct my own significance. A life changing endeavor like creating a fictitious back story for someone else’s tattoo is not done instantaneously, but I will let you know what I come up with.

Her grades are still excellent as she has 4 A’s and a statistics course. She is also on a Sylvester Stallone kick of late. JEV has remained consistently loyal to horror films that predate 1980.

JVP is also doing well and has accepted the “merger” between his employer Baptist Hospital and St. Mary’s. The merger is really a buy out. His job is secure but I am sure it is hard for him as he has been employed by Baptist throughout his career as a pathologist.

It was a good visit.

I did receive news on Monday that I will no longer be needed to paint faces at a benefit on Saturday. I am disappointed as now I cannot make orphans look like John Wayne Gacy (1942-1994).

Monday also marked the 19th birthday of JGG. I look forward to seeing you after finals.

Bible Trivia - 4/21/2008

Question: What did God ask Moses to remove when he spoke to him from the burning bush?

Answer: His sandals. (Exodus 3:5)

Comments: It seems natural that humans would eventually invent shoes to protect their feet. While shoes certainly serve a practical purpose, they may also possess a spiriutal dimension. Rabbi Moshe Chagiz reminds that after Adam's trasngression, the ground was cursed. (Genesis 3:17) As such, shoes provide a barrier between the individual and the cursed ground. Thus, it would make sense that when Moses encounters God, on Holy Ground, shoes would be unnecessary.

When God appears to Moses in the burning bush, the first divine command is to remove his sandals. The text does not state whether or not Moses complied, but it is assumed he obeyed.

Then He said, "Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." (Exodus 3:5, NASB)

In deference to this passage, there still exists a custom amongst certain chassidic groups to remove their shoes before approaching the gravesite of a holy person.

Word of the Day - 4/21/2008

Interlocutor

An interlocutor is a person who takes part in a conversation or dialogue.

Paul incorporates a literary device known as an interlocutor often in Romans. In Romans 3:27-4:2 alone, Paul presents a dialogue in which he and an interlocutor each speak five times.

In Eckleburg's Eyes - 4/21/2008

The weekend marked the end of my weeklong birthday celebration. With Monday comes my usual diet, work out routine, etc. On the plus side, I may make all birthday celebrations a minimum one week in length. At my age, they are getting more impressive.

I spent Friday night with a group of MoFos "executives" at Applebees. The place was packed as the GPS Track and Field team occupied half of the restaurant. As regulars, we were escorted in ahead of many waiting in line. I debuted my Applebees Carside shirt I bought in Charleston and I would like to think this contributed to our preferential treatment.

In attendance were GAB, SCB, JTH, JBT, and myself. I received JBT & SCB's wedding invitation earlier in the day. The two will be married on July 26 at Main Street Baptist Church in Clifton Forge, Viginia. Yes, another road trip.

I spent the night trying to persuade JTH to approach a aingle girl sitting with a couple. I even had our waitress Amy (sister to our usual waitress) assist in the process. (I apologize for the grainy surveillance photo but the flash would have been conspicuous.) Admittedly, she used her cell phone the entire time she was with her friends. This is rude, but she was attractive. This alone makes her an upgrade over JTH's present love interest, CDM. Yes, her MySpace is listed under the classy "the bitches queen." My disapproval is quite open as her name is now 212 - the area code I was in when they renewed their relationship and how many strikes she has against her. Sorry, I feel better now.

---

I spent Saturday morning at the church working with a group of nine volunteers. The work benefits Edwin L. Hodges Ministries. CMU was such a work horse that the group named him "Forklift." I worked diligently as well and only brought home two books. My restraint never ceases to amaze me.

A drizzle prevented any chance of me attending the annual orange and white game. The game caps the spring football season at UT and is free to the public. It seems Jonathan Crompton will be the Vol quarterback when the 2008 season begins. This is little surprise. Crompton completed 13 of 20 passes for 266 yards and three touchdowns, leading the white team to a 38-16 win over the orange squad. It is sad how little interest I have in Tennessee football these days.

On Saturday afternoon, SPP brought me what has been my favorite birthday card to date. I would feel old, but on the same day, I read an article about Edna parker of Shelbyville, Indiana, turning 115 on Sunday (4/20). People who exceed 110 years of age are called a supercentenarians . They actually have a word for that.

Thanks again to SPP.

Saturday night was spent at RAW's with KLTW, KJW, and RAW. I brought an assortment of candies from Russell Stover. Any time I am in the mood for these, I bring them to KLTW as eating them with a female reduces the homosexual quotient significantly. She never seems to mind. Neither does anyone else for that matter.

KJW spent much of the evening playing with Mega Bloks. These are generic oversized Legos. Lego has a brand called Duplo, but I went with the generic at KLTW's request. They are designed for children 2-6, but KJW is significantly advanced - by two months. I even bought her the “girl” pink/red kind to appease her "Nana.".

We watched Juno on DVD. I just love that film and they had not seen it. KJW conked out about the time the movie started. She even told us it was time for her to go to bed. She is the easiest kid EVER!

KLTW and RAW liked the movie. It was especially entertaining watching with KLTW as she is a medical technician. There is a seen which Juno summarizes as follows "Yeah I came as soon as I got that ultrasound goo off my pelvis. It was crazy actually, my step-mom verbally abused the ultrasound tech and we got escorted off the premises." It was awesome watching that with KLTW.

By the way, what is boysenberry?

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I returned to RAW's on Sunday morning to teach Sunday School. RAW had built KJW her own church out of MegaBloks. I have a feeling he will be using them as much as she. When she had consumed her oatmeal, we had class. Insights from WAM are posted as usual under the "WAM Quote of the Day."

I spent the afternoon spring cleaning with JTH. Cleaning with JTH is like shooting hoops with Michael Jordan, acting with Al Pacino, or singing with Hilary Duff.

It seemed very fitting to spend April 20 with JTH...

The highlight of the cleaning was the discovery of a vintage Hulk Hogan wrestling buddy. Though the buddy has seen better days, we have begun the process of salvaging him. If he survived many a vicious battle with CEH's Sting wrestling buddy, he can survive some marker and dust, albeit lots and lots of those.

WAM Quote of the Day - 4/20/2008

Perhaps the thing I missed most while in New York last week were WAM's insights from Sunday School. So without further ado, here are eight further excepts from the Gospel According to WAM:

• In response to the question “What was Saul doing when he first met Samuel?" [Looking for his father's donkey's (I Samuel 9:3)]: "Wasn't he blind?" WAM was thinking of the Saul of Acts 9, though I do not believe that Saul ever met anyone named Samuel in the Biblical text.
  
  
• In response to the question “According to church tradition, why did a Greek governor have the apostle Andrew crucified?" [Because he converted his wife to Christianity]: "Did he tell him he couldn't have any more hedonistic sex parties?" There may be some truth to this theory.
  
  
• In response to the question “Which book prophesies exclusively against Edom?" [Obadiah]: "An evil prophet."
  
  
• In response to the question “What was the relationship between Rachel and Bilhah?" [Bilhah was Rachel's maidservant (Genesis 35:25)]: "There was a guy in the Bible named Bill?"
  
  
• In response to the question “Complete the verse: 'If ye abide in me and my words abide in you...'" ["ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you" (John 15:7)]: "Ye shall get the bonus prize."
  
  
• In response to the question “According to the King James Version of the Bible, the two mites which the poor widow offered to the temple were equivalent to one _________ in value." [Farthing (Mark 12:42)]: "Like, she farted?"
  
  
• In response to the question “What line of prophecy immediately precedes this one: "Your young men shall see visions"? ["Your old men shall dream dreams" (Joel 2:28)]: "Don't worry. You're not crazy."
  
  
• In response to the question “What did Onan spill on the ground, displeasing God?" [His seed (or semen) (Genesis 38:7-10)]: "I bet he'd be popular in the porn industry." Touché.