Saturday, February 21, 2009

In my small corner

These are some of the posts I have noted with a star this past few weeks. No one has helped me with Psalm 139, tsk tsk. It could lead off a great discussion, going farther than the comments on what Daniel and Tonya call one of John's favorite posts and getting beyond the eschatology that lacks e and h which I have cut off from my aggregator, in the name of the Lord I will 'cut them off'. Let the reader beware. This intimate knowledge is not strange to Judaism either, as Rachel notes, and may indeed be one of those aspects of holiness, anointing, and love of Torah that escapes the mind of the narrow confessional approaches to being right which as noted by Ken Schenck, tend to be divisive rather than healing.

On the subject of healing, the leaves of the tree of life fit well with Rachel's post noted above, and might provide better governance of evil dictators than we have seen since the first Iraq war in 1990 on which there has been a spate of comments here (link and post removed). I am disappointed in the ad hominem tone of the comments. Tutu is right to point out the consequence of American actions. There is no choice but repentance - and the reality of repentance is action not words.

On a more positive note, John points us to the Bach Bible - and indeed Bach is known, relics aside, as the fifth evangelist. And Bach to the Bible aside, David reminds us twice as noted by Tim and Henry and John that commas, cantillation, headings, and structural summaries are not canonical and can be positively misleading. This has been my argument for leaving out what the words do not say that the Spirit may create in us the action that is non-action. Not by might in the strength of your tanks and gas pedals, nor by power in the cleverness of your abstractions, but by the Spirit in that knowledge of us that cannot be faced without the face of יְהוָה and our death in his death. Then we will learn something more of the abnormally interesting true temple. And at the risk of sounding my own horn, do read Psalm 80. And consider the lilies!

On the issue of understanding, Sue's even-handedness on Ephesians 5:22 is noted here. As an egalitarian and inclusivist, I wonder if the fearful rule of tyrants is somewhat related to the failure of the Church to note its own prejudices. Not to be solved by violence...

There are many posts I starred with the hope of returning to them some day - just not enough time - so lectures on Hebrews, Pagan Christianity (Ken is reading it for us, for which I am thankful), and theological exegesis.

And this emphasis on statistics, John, - Jim is right to pooh-pooh them, but don't read his post. Who counts the reads on an aggregator when you don't have to go to the site to read the post? And who counts the pages when they are on a site that is not counted? Who loves statistics deserves the plague (pick your favorite) - and its cure - to fall into the hand of יְהוָה - no better place to be.

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