I was just listening to Rebecca St. James and Todd Agnew sing “Our Great God,” and it just reminded me how thankful I feel right now.

We’ve had a ton of bills lately with the new table (we outgrew the old one), computer (it died), washer and dryer (they were dying together), computer, midwife, doula, tuition, and visits from family. God has provided a lot of money to meet those bills. I mean a lot. Close to $10,000 in the last three weeks. (I broke a Black Friday sales record and received my overload pay from teaching all in the last three weeks.) That almost covers everything (yeah, they add up). What would normally have been a stressful time has not been that bad.

I have a beautiful new son. The birth was incredible. It couldn’t have gone any more perfectly. The doula was incredible when it came to supporting Rachel. The whole time Rachel was in labor, I kept thanking God for her. The midwife was great too, but let the doula pretty much handle things.

My daughter continues to grow in her relationship to Christ. She amazes me sometimes.

I’m glad to be in a church where we can chant, receive communion every week, feel loved, and our children can commune. We’ve actually been able to develop a relationship with a fellow congregation member (though in its early stages, it’s nice to be able to connect to someone other than the pastor and his family). The lady is a bit older than us, but her youngest son is close to Kyrie’s age.

My class this semester will be taught by Reggie Kidd, and it’s on my favorite subject. How great is that? I’ve been able to finish most of the books (I saved the best ones for last, so woohoo).

I’ve had off of work for three straight days. I don’t think I’ve had more than one day in a row off since August (and even then I was usually working on my day off). It’s been a time of healing and rest (though I must say I am wiped out from all the work I am doing–but it’s different work, so in a big way, it’s restful).

We have family coming to visit. Forrest and Rebekah will be here in less than two weeks. The Enloe family also plans to come by. Mommy and daddy plan on coming in February. It will be so nice to have company again, and it’s nice to have a table that will fit everyone (tightly though!).

I love how all of our close friends’ families are growing. Exponential growth is nice when it involves friends.

We are planning to stay our entire summer in Spokane, if possible. Actually, it would be nice to just move up there, so maybe a job can fall in our laps (pretty please!).

It’s Advent. The long green season is fully over.

Oh, Lord remind us once again of your wonderful works. Hallelujah! Glory be to our great God.

I was writing a paper on Good Friday this afternoon, and two previous blogposts, which had been of interest to a few of you, were relevant. I connect them here, in a portion of one of my paragraphs:

Laurence Hull Stookey comments about Jesus’ last words:

“It is finished” is an anemic rendering of the Greek verb tetelestai, which implies the transmission of something from afar (the same tele as in telephone, telegraph, and television). “It is finished” does not mean “It’s all over now” but means “That which has been far off is now brought near; the goal is accomplished.” In other words, the eternal purpose of God is now achieved.

I think Stookey fails to expound on this thought like he should. I would like to take this a step farther, theologically. In the Hebrew, the word translated “offering” is corban. A more literal translation of corban would read “the thing brought near.” Jesus is the corban. He is the One brought near. Moreover, I would connect it to Stookey’s earlier description of anamnesis,

This rememberance by doing rather than cogitation falls under the Greek term anamnesis. Compare amnesia. Amnesia is the loss of memory. Anamnesis is literally “the drawing near of memory,” the entrance into our own experience of that which otherwise would be locked in the past.

Thus the liturgical observance of past events somehow brings them into our own time.

On this day where we do not receive the Eucharist in bread and wine, where Jesus is not brought near in the bread and wine, we give thanks for our Saviour who is “Christ our Passover, sacrificed for us,” and we remember His words that “That which has been far off is now brought near.”

I’ll be leaving Florida in a few hours, and as usual, I’ve gotten to see some glimpses of God’s glory. Friday was Bob Webber’s memorial service. This was the memorial service that the family chose to attend. It was good to see Joanne again, to see that love she has for Bob. You know how they say some couples were “made for each other”? It’s that way with Bob and Joanne. When Jim Hart asked her if she’d rather be called Bob’s wife or widow, she replied, “Wife.” I was standing right next to her and heard her mutter under her breath, “Forever and ever.”

The mother of one of my classmates passed away suddenly on Monday. My classmate handled it with great faith. His father was diagnosed with terminal cancer on the last day of last term and was supposed to be in heavenly glory by this term, so this has been a bit backwards for the family. She had gone into the hospital on Wednesday and seemed fine on Thursday. She found out that a hole in her esophagus. This, in turn, caused acid to leak into her blood and poison it, causing her organs to shut down. She started taking a turn for the worse on Sunday while we were at the beach. By Monday, they were going to take her off the ventilator by evening, but she didn’t make it that long. It was shocking to me how quickly it all happened. I guess that with her husband dying of cancer, she probably didn’t feel the need to fight for her life. My classmate kept saying, “She always said she didn’t want to live without dad; now she doesn’t have to.”

Another classmate who had missed last semester (due to a viral heart attack) was back again this semester. He told the story of how, through misdiagnosis and wrong treatment, his blood was thinned to the point of leaking out of his stomach. He woke up in a puddle of blood (after having been changing bandages for several days). He thought he was going to die, so he prayed with his father, who is also a pastor (I believe). When he came back into the room five minutes later to take him to the hospital, there was a crusty scab that looked like it had been there for days. Incredible.

On Sunday I hit the beach after worship and stayed in the water a couple hours longer than everyone else. After the beach, I went to a worship service. Brian McLaren was the celebrant, and I had a good chat with him on the glories of teaching English (He was an English prof. Before going into the ministry and then public speaking). He reminded me once again why my background is oh so useful for what I hope to do in the future. Of all the well-known pastors and theologians I’ve met over the years, I have to say that McLaren is probably the most approachable. He’s had this “Hey, guys, what’s going on? Can I play?” smile on his face for the last three days.

Hmmm…I’m too distracted to blog anything else.

So, as Rachel mentioned a few days ago, we were struck by the plague. I was bowing my knees a few days ago, a couple days after Rachel was sick. Everyone else was sick yesterday, and we’re all starting to feel better now. I think the sickness has mostly passed, but we’re all weak, and I think my digestive system is still out of whack because food just feels like it sits in my stomach forever.

I think my digestive system is always out of whack when we come up here anyway. When we’re at home, we eat mostly vegetables and whole grains. We don’t eat a lot of white flour carbs (any really) and we’ve cut most of the meat out of our diets. Black bean tacos became a favorite in the fall, and I mentioned them to Rachel before I fell asleep last night, which made her mad at me, because then she started craving them. I was craving a avocado, tomato, and swiss sandwich from Sparky’s. (Speaking of Sparky’s, I’ll get a free sandwich after I buy two more. Yessss.)

I’m also in the mood for some wild berry sparkling cider.

Kyrie drank her wine today at church before I noticed she hadn’t eaten her bread. Today was the first day back in Salem’s sanctuary since the fire 11 months ago. Kyrie was delighted with the stained glass and banners.

I was exhausted after church (eventhough we were in bed by 11:30), and then we went to Red Robin for lunch (which sealed the deal), and Kyrie and I both went down for two hour naps.

It’s kinda jolting to go from 60-70 hour work weeks to a really long vacation. Despite my sickness, I was still able to polish off three books this week. Yet, I’m still too lazy to update my sidebar book widget. The only real benefit to that widget is that it adds color to the blog.

After Fr. Errol handed it to me, I dropped my communion wafer! That was embarrassing. So, I sought the Lord, and I found Him, between the communion rail and cushion.

Is this post completely sacrilegious?

So Kyrie has been increasing her vocabulary, and today’s addition was, “Jesus,” which came out “Jesus,” “Jay-sa,” and “Jay-zus” during the service today. She knows the difference between Jesus, Joseph, Mary, the cow, and the mule (by pointing, not talking) in the stained glass window (and has for a few weeks), though she sometimes confuses the cow with other things (I think she just likes pointing at the cow). She was extremely talkative in the service today, repeating “Jesus” after our rector several times.

Ooo, she even did some wafer-dancing at home the other day (though that’s just from goofing around at the table, not from watching our rector).

The Bible is, in short, the staple diet of Christian worship, as it is of Christian teaching. But, as one of the most famous stories of scripture makes abundantly clear, even scripture isn’t the very center. When the risen Jesus met two disciples on the road to Emmaus, their hearts burned within them while he talked about the Bible. But their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, when he broke the bread.