Kelly’s Blog

No, not the ones with the silly puns on them.  When we drive through Carman on the way to Winnipeg, we often see the signs on this one Reformed church.  They seem to be quite bold, not really caring whether people find their theology offensive.  There’s something to respect in that, I think.  It’s much better than a church that seeks to be user-friendly by hiding everything about themselves to the public on their signs and publications, including their church affiliation and thus their confession of what the Bible teaches.  Mind you, the theology of this church really is quite offensive and (I humbly submit) wrong.  A recent sign we saw said something to the effect of “Christ died for the elect.”  Which says to the passers-by in their cars:  “Jesus paid for the sins of a lot of our church members, but probably not for your sins.  Have a nice day.”

Recently the church had up a sign for their Ascension Day service (which was Thursday), and I missed what the sign said, but this quote from Gene Veith is worth a ponder, anyway:

“It’s odd that the significance of Christ’s ascension is taken in two opposite ways: The Reformed say that it means Christ is ABSENT, no longer on earth, so that His real presence in the sacrament is impossible. Lutherans say that it means Christ, at the right hand of Power, His human nature assumed into the Holy Trinity, can now be omnipresent, so that He CAN be on every altar.”  -HT: Cranach.

Anyway, I do respect churches which are straightforward about the specifics of their confession of faith.  Next time your pastor or Bible study leader pulls out a study series of his own, or a book to look at or teach out of, ask them what theological underpinnings the material has; where the author is coming from, what his presuppositions are theologically.  Beware of the line, “We’re just going by what the Bible says,” which is generally nonsense.

…to write anything too intelligent at the moment, although for days now I’ve been wanting to write up some new observations out of Genesis, which Alex and I are in the process of reading through for evening devotions.  It’s funny how texts you think are familiar can take on a whole new light so often, like you’re reading it for the first time.

Artwork-wise, I just finished the portrait of me with BabyK.  I’ll probably be emailing out a photo of it soon.  It’s this year’s submission to the juried art show.  I’ve also been working on scrapbooking stuff and more recently, BabyK’s “first birthday” stuff, like party invites and her b-day card.  I’m going to end up as one of those moms. 

But until I can collect my thoughts, here’s another nice post from Josh S, this time on distinctives of Lutherans and church– how it comes down to “Who are we?” and “What are we doing?”

…And Alex and I were there!

Howard Shore’s award-winning score to The Lord of the Rings:  The Fellowship of the Ring was performed last night in Winnipeg by the WSO, along with chorus and soloists.  It was fantastic.  And I’m not just saying that because I’ve seen the movie over 20 times in theaters alone…

The fact that the music of the film was brought to the forefront, while the action on the screen behind the orchestra was somewhat relegated to “second place,” made for a really interesting experience.  Alex and I were both noticing bits of music and details that we’d never noticed before, like the hammer dulcimer used in the Shire music, the prevalence of the children’s choir in certain key moments of Boromir’s role, and so on.  Even with a movie screen, the fact that the music was live gave the entire event the emotional impact of a live epic musical.  And the movie/live dynamic made for some fascinating bits of interplay, like Legolas in Lorien observing from afar the lament for Gandalf (and us seeing the lament being sung right in front of us).

What could have been better…?  Only one or two cues were missed, most notably when Aragorn crashes into Lurtz to keep him from shooting Boromir at close range (the silence lingered and the active music started up some seconds after impact).  Mysteriously missing from the precedings was “Flaming Red Hair,” the hobbit party music, so you see all these hobbits dancing and partying to the “music in their heads.”  :o)  Finally, several people drove me crazy by getting up and leaving as soon as the movie screen went to black, though the orchestra, choirs, and soloists still had about 5 minutes of performance.  This deprived these performers of getting their proper credit and applause.  Grr.

But it was a fabulous show!!!

How many signatures matter, anyway? (Click on the picture to enlarge)

I can’t resist… just one more very funny clip from “The Monkees Paw”!

I’d never pegged myself as a Jane Austen fan, but I found myself quite enjoying Pride and Prejudice. So we rented the recent movie adaptation with Keira Knightley and it was very well done.

Somehow I recently (re)stumbled across the CTCR document on “Spiritual Gifts” and spiritual gift inventories. It’s a very helpful analysis, from the practice’s origin in 1960s and 70s Pentecostalism and the Church Growth movement, to considering Paul’s intentions with his writing on the subject. Exerpts:

Each of the Pauline texts gives the strong impression that the apostle is addressing an ad hoc situation. This is one of the reasons that Paul’s lists of gifts cannot be easily catalogued. The lists appear as illustrative examples applied to the particular situation he is addressing. The gifts as such do not seem to be Paul’s primary concern. Hence, it is not his intention to present a comprehensive “theology of spiritual gifts” or to draw up a program for discovering and exercising the gifts. He is not concerned about the numbers and kinds of “spiritual gifts,” but about probing and exposing the underlying problems in Corinth. Paul’s concern, for example, is not that the Corinthians lack “church growth principles” and need to use gifts as one of the solutions to stagnant growth. Nor is the problem at Corinth that people are failing to discover and develop their spiritual gifts, so that Paul must show them how. The problem is one of division resulting from a wrong evaluation and prioritization of certain gifts.

…This brief survey suggests that the term charisma cannot be regarded as a technical term for either supernatural gifts or special abilities. It can refer to the gift of encouraging, the gift of generous giving, the gift of marriage or celibacy, or even (as it does repeatedly) to the gift of salvation. Paul does not differentiate sharply between these various gifts. Not even in 1 Corinthians 12- 14 does charismata “acquire a semitechnical force.” What all these items have in common and what binds them together is that they are expressions of grace, they are gifts. They are given freely by God out of the sheer generosity of his divine grace.

Meanwhile, the Internet Monk gives us his experiences and his take on the widespread prevalence of Christ-less preaching. HT: Cyberbrethren.

This one is from our recent reading of Christ with the disciples on the Emmaus road.

I finally provided Alex with the info and pictures to update my art website.  Go check it out– there are some brand new galleries up.

And just in case you need a bit of a giggle, this little clip of outtakes can be found at the end of one of the Monkee’s second-season episodes.

For more on the Texas prairie chicken…

I think Luther was having some ‘issues’ with the Pope back in the 1520s. (Click the image to view full size.)

Not “on holiday” but on the subject of holy-days.  From a recent post on his blog:

As I’ve become more Lutheran over the last few years, I’ve noticed my appreciation for holidays has completely changed from “times to have fun with friends and family” to “high points of the liturgical year.” It’s not that time of year, but whenever I hear someone raving, “Put the Christ back in Christmas!” I want to yell back at him, “Put the Mass back in Christmas!” Anyway, part of this is that I no longer resent not having days off work or school for holidays, as long as I have time to go to the service. I don’t really care so much about gift-giving on Christmas; celebrating the Eucharist with the church is so much more important than who gave whom what. More and more every year, I feel like the holiday season being celebrated at JC Penny’s is a parallel, but completely different season from the one we call “Advent.” So when any mention of “Christmas” is banished from the public square, I don’t really get offended. I think, “At least you’re being honest.” Really, should people who don’t celebrate the Mass say they’re celebrating Christ-Mass?

You may have heard that this excellent broadcast “for the thinking Christian” was mysteriously taken off the air and its host and producer suddenly fired, much to the outrage of many in the LCMS (not to mention many Christians of other church bodies worldwide).  An article in the Wall Street Journal today, by one Mollie Ziegler Hemingway, explains the outcry.

Bring back Issues, Etc!!!

Holland, Manitoba, that is.  That’s where we dropped off my artwork today for an April exhibition of “For All the Saints.”  The artist meet-and-greet is April 10th from 7-9, so if you’re in the area, come on out.