Deus Misereatur

  I have gone with my congregation every year to Southwest Oklahoma, where we serve among Kiowa Christians, and Apache, Caddo, and others. So, I was looking forward with anticipation as "The Everlasting People: G.K. Chesterton and the First Nations" came in the mail. This 184-page softback was penned by Matthew J. Milliner, associate professor of art history at Wheaton College. The author intends for this volume to continue "the age-old conversation between Christianity and Indigenous North American life" (13), and he seeks to do this primarily by drawing G.K. Chesterton into the conversation. It mostly does. The author takes readers through some of the indigenous art of earlier peoples in North America, primarily rock art and other forms, depicting the stories of the Hodag/Mishipeshu and Thunderbirds. He then takes us around the Winfield Mounds and Chicago. And strangely he ends on an icon of Our Virgin of Perpetual Help ("The Virgin of the Passion"). On ...

  Battle Cry for Freedom James McPherson Oxford University Pres; $19.10; 9780195168952; 1988 With thousands of reviews on Goodreads and Amazon, and tens of thousands of ratings in both places, I'll make this short and sweat. "Battle Cry of Freedom" is a most important volume to read on the Civil War. McPherson does a masterful job showing the complexities that led up to the war, and the political and motivational twists evolving in the war. For example, the author gives clear, and profuse evidence, of how the war was not fought over one, narrow, thin monolithic aim (slavery) but was far more entangled. The fact that in 1862 Lincoln almost lost half his army because they weren't fighting for emancipation but the preservation of the Union, is one piece of that convoluted puzzle.  Much that led up to the conflagration is chronicled, and then the progress of the contest is artfully rehearsed in riveting ways to the last. I was intrigued by how contemporary it all sounded ...

  (This was the main part of my letter to the congregation sent out today, 26 January 2022. Feel free to use it and/or distribute it) Today, I get to speak to the Capitol Bible Study, and I will be addressing the short letter “Jude” and it’s theme of passionate love. Let me share a little bit with you.   There are some spiritual insurgents who have snuck into the church to which Jude is writing and they are spreading mayhem and malice. Most of this letter (17 out of 25 verses) is tied up with describing the kind of people who are causing trouble and V. 4 gives the general outline of the problem: They turn God’s grace into grime, and in word and deed they deny the divine rule of Jesus! Their creed, “ deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ ” (4c), is crooked, and so their conduct, “pervert the grace of our God into sensuality ” (4b), follows the same contortions. Creed and Deed go hand-in-hand! And so, following their crooked creed-deed dynamic, they are a church destroyin...

  LORD God, our Father, you are the Rock, whose work is perfect, for all your ways are justice. You are a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright are you (Deuteronomy 32:4). Thank you for being all of this in yourself; and being all of this for us. Now O Lord, hear our prayer. O God, most holy, wise, and powerful Preserver and Governor of all your creatures and all of our actions: Keep us in health of body and soundness of mind, in purity of heart and cheerfulness of spirit, in contentment with our lot and charity with our neighbor; and further all of our lawful undertakings with your blessing.  In our labor strengthen us; in our pleasure purify us; in our difficulties direct us; in our perils defend us; in our troubles comfort us; and supply all our needs, according to the riches of your grace in Christ Jesus. O Lord, hear our prayer. Father, we pray for those we know from our daily dealings, neighbors, people we meet at the grocery store or outside Walmart...

  Thus says the LORD: “‘ See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand ” (Deuteronomy 32:39). Therefore, we adore you, the only God; we worship you, God over life and death, hurt and health! Have mercy, we pray, on all who have turned their backs to you and not their faces (…). Give them to your Son that he may never lose them but raise them up on the last day. Have mercy, we pray, on all who are beat up, badgered, beleaguered, broke and brittle (…). Grant them the specific aid they need – whether monetary, medical, medicinal or mending – and raise them up to rejoice in your goodness and lift their hearts and voices in thanksgiving. Have mercy, we pray, on those women who feel pressured and oppressed to the point that they have contemplated abortion, and those misguided and misled by tricky guides. Have mercy on children in the womb. Give mother and child safety, health, a...