Ancestors, and more immediately our parents are our root and source and our debt to them should be acknowledged. We should honor them,  because beyond being our biological root, and the primary influence of our socialization and development, in them we honor God who designed the whole process of human generation. We honor God’s wisdom and beauty in the creation and perpetuation of humanity. To honor parents is to sacramentally honor God.

Now, from a religious perspective I get that this is no crashing insight. The inspiration I received was more of an intuition about the whole phenomena of ancestry and honor, and the words I wrote was the product of me trying to make sense of this intuition. The thing that prompts me to share this with you, however, was that later in the service, instead of a sermon from our priest, we had a visiting missionary give us a report about his work among the Soninke people in west Africa. At the end of his testimony, he wrapped up with a bit of divine irony by telling us about the frustration he experienced when he sensed that he should go home for a brief season to take care of his parents just when things were beginning to develop regarding the response of the Soninke to the Gospel. Upon returning to west Africa, however, he discovered that his leaving was just what was needed, as the Soninke that he had been ministering to gained a profound respect for the man who, against the western norm of putting his parents in an “old folks” home, decided to go home and take care of them himself. In doing this, they began to see him as more than just a westerner who taught them about the prophet Jesus, and who did some good deeds, but as one who was truly human, and worthy of being heard.

So, was this a coincidence? Synchronicity? There was nothing thematically in the lectionary or in the service prior to this missionary’s testimony that dealt with parenthood or ancestry. I will say, however, that before the service I had a conversation with a couple of parishioners about Leanne Payne, the doctrine of recapitulation, and healing, which could have put the general idea of parental influence into my consciousness, but still the aptness between what I wrote, and what the missionary shared seemed like something more than a loose conceptual connection. It’s just too fitting.

Blessed Theologians,

Who may not be feeling so blessed right now, and who may yet be crying out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me on this Golgotha of nuanced and subtle academic theology!!” If this is so, I hope to give you a word of encouragement. To begin, just do your best to get through the reading and don’t worry too much about comprehension, as I consider it part of my job to help you decode some of the content and ideas that may not be familiar and may be somewhat challenging in the attempt to wrap your head around it. Along with this, questions are most welcome. In fact, they demonstrate your desire to learn and your engagement with the text. So, don’t be afraid to share your questions.

Also, keep in mind that there are a variety of voices across the theological spectrum represented in this anthology. So, it is alright to disagree, even to the point of thinking “Poppycock!” or perhaps words of a less savory nature, which would not be fitting to print in an email that will be transmitted via a Mennonite email server. Amidst disagreement, however, I would like you to try to both identify what the author’s concerns are even if you don’t like the author’s solution, and also try to find areas where you agree with the author. Keep in mind that your instructor tends to be quite irenic in spirit, and so he of course appreciates it when his students exhibit such qualities. Also, don’t let your instructor continue to refer to himself in the third person as it is a bit weird.

Finally, I hope there are points that excite you in this reading. I have certainly found it exciting, and in fact it is my intention to buy a couple of books by Stanley Grenz this weekend, particularly The Social God and the Relational Self: A Trinitarian Theology of the Imago Dei, which in all geeky truth took my breath away when I read the title, as it spoke to ideas I have been long working out in my own thinking

The Lord be with you,
Anthony

If you could only read one gospel, one epistle, and one book from the Old Testament, what books would you choose, and why would you choose them?

I will provide my answer shortly in the comment section.

So, how does one dress for this kind of forecast?

Leonard did not know about the bungee option regarding the descent into the Abyss of Perdition.

As I turned forty a couple of years back, I was warmly greeted by plantar fasciitis (basically, an inflammation where the ligaments at the bottom of the feet connect to the heal), which I finally overcame through megadoses of Advil, a round of cortisone shots in my foot, and a season of wearing Birkenstocks. In my youth I was diagnosed with Osgood Shlatters disease (yet another inflammation, but this time due to tiny microfractures at the point where the tendons connect the patella to the tibia). This, though ameliorated, is something that abides. In a previous season of my life, when I was running rather regularly, I would often experience a pinched nerve in my right hip. I share all of this to say that as much as my mind says “yes” to running, my body, in various ways, says “no”.

And yet, my body will not have the last word on whether I run. So, I have decided to ease into running by sticking moderately close to the ten week plan, and I have heard that I would do myself a great favor by visiting a local shoe store that specializes in running, where a professional staff can analyze my gait and prescribe the best running shoe for me, which apparently goes a long way toward preventing injury.

Carpe 5k!

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Blessed colleagues who are about to become more blessed,

I am shamelessly using work media for a matter of personal interest. My daughter, Elena, is selling Girl Scout cookies (do I need to say “Thin Mint” to consciously put you in touch with the opportunity you have here). Yes, I know you might resist, because (a) calories, and (b) cost, or stated another way, the monetary and caloric cost of buying and eating GS cookies. So, before you make that resistance a definitive “no”, let us reason together.

The Greeks have a term “eudaimonia” which in denuded form translates to the English word “happiness” but is better translated as something like “human flourishing”, which is the idea I want to capitalize upon (both monetarily and intellectually) as I reason with you regarding why you should buy some GS cookies from my daughter. Each box of cookies is, to borrow a phrasing from late night infomercials, “available for the low, low cost of only $4.00″ So, even considering the rather meager compensation of college jobs, the price is doable. Regarding the calories, the benefit of the overwhelming sense of well-being and prosperity of soul that eating GS cookies will bring is worth whatever calories you pack on as a result of such partaking. The formula for this cost benefit ratio works out something like this

Benefit: 1,000,000 eudaimonia points
Cost: 160 Calories for four cookies

To help make this information more meaningful, let me state that most sane, well-adjusted people live at around 200,000 eudaimonia points. Furthermore, people with Bi-Polar disorder clock in at around 400,000 eudaimonia points in the manic phase of their disorder, and they crash at around 30,000 eudamonia points in their depressive phase. By comparison, there is no depressive phase in eating GS cookies, there is only a fond remembrance of what it was like to eat such cookies and thereby exist in such a potent state of eudamonia, the mere remembrance of which is able to provide an additional 50,000 points of eudamonia to the norm of 200,000. Did you get that!? 50,000 for the mere remembrance of eating these cookies!

Regarding the calories, 160 divided by 4 is 40, which goes into 3000 calories roughly 70 times!! This means that you can eat 70 cookies at the mere cost of only adding one pound of body weight. Keep in mind, once you exceed eating only 20 cookies you are approaching the intense feeling of euphoria that heroine users experience, but without the nasty physiological and psychological addiction that ensues from such use.

So, all in all, on all levels, the money it will cost you is nothing compared to the benefit you will receive in buying some cookies from my daughter.

I thank you for your consideration.

See you soon.

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