Deus Misereatur

Meditations on Violence: A Comparison of Martial Arts Training and Real World Violence by Rory Miller My rating: 4 of 5 stars Self-defense and martial arts schools are popping up all over the landscape promising to boost self-confidence, but more importantly, pledging to aid their attendees in self-protection. One will even find classes offered at the local “Y” or as part of a community college’s “Adult Continuing Education” program. The lessons feel right as instructors guide their learners through katas, sweaty times with kicking bags, repetitive maneuvers, and sparring. Sensei and karatekas train in ways of controlled violence that should assist the practitioners in viable personal defense. And yet one element is missing, thankfully for most of us. Just as in football training, all of the practice in blocking, running, strategy and tackling looks good, but it isn’t until being immersed in the mild bedlam of the games that one finds out if they have the mettle to hang tough, if t...

Thanksgiving Pt 1 Psalm 100 Lord God, through this reading and addressing of Psalm 100, come and ease the grief or worry or fretting or distractions that may be ransacking our hearts, and fill us with your joy by the Holy Spirit and through the presence and mediation of Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. Amen. Before the Turkey is cooked and eaten, before the family blows in and blows right back out, before the perspiration trickles down and stings your eyes, before the refrigerator gets stuffed with leftovers, it’s good to remember “Thanksgiving”. This is a good time to reflect on Thanksgiving, on real, genuine thanksgiving, not just as some annual time of panic and pressure. And it is a great time to ruminate over what we hopefully will do in the midst of all the hustle and mayhem. To guide us, we are going to delve into Psalm 100 – “ A Psalm for Giving Thanks .” A pattern : Before we jump into the Psalm, we should see that there is a pattern to it. First,  vers...

Sunday Morning: O LORD God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who has adopted us into your covenant people and who calls us your own; we come in this confidence to pray for your World and Your Church. We pray that you would overrule the murderous mayhem, conspiracies and chaos that seem to be flooding many nations. Restore good order and legitimate peace in every land, and bring wellbeing and tranquility to all nations – for the good of all people, and the safety of your Church.  Almighty God, thank you for this country. Keep our nation in the ways of your peace and righteous lawfulness for the good of the citizens of this land and the peace of your Church. We ask for your care, protection and provision for all our U.S. Military personnel. And we especially pray for those who are Christian Chaplains in the military – Like Matt Oliver and Rich Boyd, chaplains from our Presbytery – give them strength, wisdom, and deep insight to make Christ known to their troops and to bring t...

The One, the Three and the Many by Colin E. Gunton My rating: 5 of 5 stars This was an interesting plunge into a whole different way of thinking theologically. And it was quite an intellectual stretch. It seems to me that Gunton was addressing the valuable critiques from Modernity and later Modernity (post-modernity) as well as it's deep short-falls. But the author also worked slowly into the material, massaging into the this work bit by bit, what he sees as the remedy to the critiques and the short-falls: a renewed and reworked theology of creation through the lens and relationship of the Trinity. This will impact and change our anthropology: our human-to-human, human-to-creation, human-to-God relations; "All things are what they are by being particulars constituted by many and various forms of relation. Relationality is thus the transcendental which allows us to learn something of what it is to say that all created people and things are marked by their coming from and re...

O LORD, you are our God; we will exalt you; we will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure (Isaiah 25.1). Almighty God, hasten the day when nations will fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth will fear your glory (Psalm 102.15). For there is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. Yes, bring all the nations that you have made to come and worship before you, O Lord, and to glorify your name – whether Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, Maoist, Secularist – all nations! For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God (Psalm 86.8-10). Protect your Church in all lands; and deliver those people who are being terrorized and brutalized. Convert the bloodthirsty and heartless, and if they will not repent, then break the arm of the wicked and evildoer; call his wickedness to account till you find none (Psalm 10.15). O Lord, hear our prayer. For those re-elected and those new...

The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell My rating: 4 of 5 stars Fussell's book is not what at first one might expect or even desire. Though it is about "The Great War" (World War One), it is not a history, but something totally other; "After all, I was writing not a history, only an elegiac commentary" (365). Nevertheless the work is exceptional. By walking through the literary world that swirled around the Great War - from before, during and since - Fussell has cleared away some of the mud and grime and exposed a portion of the raw soul of the trench soldiers.Yet the work is a one-ff autobiography, almost a cathartic exercise for the author as he tried hard to fathom his own war experience in World War Two. "The Great War and Modern Memory" is a work that adds flesh and sinews to the skeletal labors of history-reciting books. As we are closing out the Centenary of the First World War, I would encourage you to read some of the important ...

He Knows! Hosea 2.2-8, 14-23 (1 Peter 2.4-10) The Audio File is Here: tinysa.com/sermon/111814103612 [If you find this piece helpful, please let me know. I would like to hear your story and how this has helped. Mike] Lord God, who has been broken over our whoring hearts that have often departed from you (Ezekiel 6.9), may we be brought to grasp more fully your own brokenheartedness this day that we may more willingly seek you and know you. Amen. I’ve seen it with my own eyes; heard it with my own ears; and truth be known, sadly, I’ve done it myself more times than can be told. I’m referring to that sanctimonious smugness that assesses other’s based almost entirely on exteriors and peripherals. A person’s marriage comes crashing down in smoldering, charred embers around their feet, and then they see that “Look” in the eyes of their Christian friends, or that “harrumph” that escapes from their lips. A single parent or a couple has an unruly kid, an errant teenage...