Introducing...

Jed

Jed is an almost 13 year old Golden Retriever that we got from the amazing Homeward Bound Golden Retriever Rescue up near Sacramento.  He likes sleeping.  Following people around is good too.

Monday Morning Preacher: Even John Chrysostom had bad days

I preached up at Fort Bragg yesterday, which was great fun. The waiter at Eggheads remembered me--including my tea order!

It was funny trying to prepare my sermon on the man born blind. No one seemed to have anything to say about it. "Yup," the commentaries said. "Born blind. Healed. Good one, J-dawg."

I eventually went looking for other sermons and found this one by the great 4th Century preacher John Chrysostom, Mr. Golden Mouth. He couldn't find much to say either. The upshot of this sermon is we should know our Bible so that we can "exhibit all boldness of speech towards those who attempt to accuse, and who say anything against the Christians, and to stop their mouths" like the man born blind did.

He then gets in a little dig at popular culture: "Yet if a harper, or dancer, or stage-player call the city, they all run eagerly, and feel obliged to him for the call, and spend the half of an entire day in attending to him alone; but when God speaketh to us by Prophets and Apostles, we yawn, we scratch ourselves, we are drowsy." Same old story, because people are people, you know. Entertainment is going to be more fun than study.

I found this gospel an interesting text to illustrate the "plain meaning of Scripture" argument. The truth is, when the meaning of Scripture is plain, there's not much more to say about it. It's when it isn't plain that the preaching gets interesting. And challenging. And contradictory. If all Scripture were so plain, there wouldn't be much to preach on.

I'll post the sermon in a bit.

Sunday Funnies, April 3

Such a great April Fools Day joke from Google.

Opening Day

First it was wonderful.

The weather was perfect and the crowd cheered as each player was introduced and charged on the field. Baseball! And a whole new season ahead! And a homerun for our boys in green and gold in the first inning!

Then it got funny.

Stomper, our suave elephant mascot, decided to sit right in front of me for a while. Just as the shortstop made an egregious error.

Then it got ugly. Five errors? Ugh. Stomper banged his head against the metal rails in front of him as he watched. It's going to be a loooong season.

Cote d'Ivoire update

Things are not good, as a third day of fighting continues.

Neither side is particularly clean here. Those supporting the generally recognized winner of the presidential election were part of a massacre in the town of Duekoue.

A spokesman for the UN mission in Ivory Coast, Guillaume N'Gefa, told AFP that 330 people had been killed in Duekoue as Mr Ouattara's forces took over the town, most of them at the hands of the rebels.

More than 100 more people were killed by Mr Gbagbo's troops before they left, he added.

Mr N'Gefa said a UN team was still investigating and those figures were likely to rise.

Earlier the International Committee of the Red Cross said at least 800 died, while Roman Catholic charity Caritas put the figure at more than 1,000.

Staff of the ICRC who visited the western city of Duekoue said the scale and brutality of the killings were shocking.

Texas in Africa posts notes from a friend in Abidjan:

Things are escalating rapidly. I think there will be revenge killings for a while. And if any pro-Gbagbo forces are able to muster any strength back -- they will try to return the revenge again. It is absolute slaughter and chaos here right now. I am hoping the worst is over-- at least I thought it would be this morning when I woke up-- but unless Ouattara somehow starts controlling the FRCI [Forces Republicain de Cote d'Ivoire, which supports Ouattara] and his supporters-- I think it will continue for a while. And the way I see some of the Twittersphere egging the conflict on-- is worrisome. So much propaganda and cheering at the "democratization." SMS has been suspended (or at least ours is) so maybe this will stop some of the calls for violence, but cells are still working most of the time-- and almost everyone here has one-- so they can easily connect and find their opponents.

Doctors Without Borders also reports "hearing constant gunfire along with the occasional heavy detonation, and that’s been going on for a few days now. We had been moving around, visiting clinics and helping patients up until a few days ago. But the situation on the streets has deteriorated to such an extent that it’s just become too dangerous to go outside."

I don't even know what to say. Prayers continue.

April Fools Day

A little trick from spring and the weeping cherry tree.

Various & Sundry, April 1

It's April Fools Day, and also opening day for the A's, and a friend has offered me a ticket! If it's for real, she's my new best friend for evah! If it's a prank, she's dead to me. DEAD! You hear me?

Ahem. Moving on.

I think it would be fun to get a set of these stamps from Jesus Hates Papyrus. I don't think they're generally available though. At least I haven't been able to find them. Jesus doesn't like it.

This blog entry will not come as a surprise, but as an affirmation that what you always thought was true is, in fact, true: success (in anything, I would assert, though this is about humanitarian aid) has to do with effective people rather than great technology.

In project after project, the lesson was the same: information technology amplified the intent and capacity of human and institutional stakeholders, but it didn't substitute for their deficiencies. If we collaborated with a self-confident community or a competent non-profit, things went well. But, if we worked with a corrupt organization or an indifferent group, no amount of well-designed technology was helpful.

After finishing All Clear, I was particularly intrigued by this obituary for Erlund Hudson, an artist "who captured life on the Home Front during the Second World War," such as these women turning bedsheets into bandages.

Finally, please listen to this week's This American Life episode. I know I frequently refer you to the latest This American Life episode because it is amazing. I'm going to do it again: It is amazing. You will be mind-boggled that such things can happen, and can continue to happen in the name of justice. And then when you have listened to the report, go to this website for an idea of what to do about it. "Kafkaesque," someone called it, and that about sums it up. Seriously, listen to this. It is riveting.