Note from the Editor

Hello, everyone- I hope your day is going well...I know my track record with putting forth plans and making promises regarding this blog, but i do want to bring light to a couple things I'll be working on for this space coming up soon.

First: I've been given the privilege of putting together the Pre/Post Service music to be played at my church, Crossings Knoxville. I'll be working up posts for each week coming up (and also for the previous 5 weeks past) that will include Album Art, links to buy the music, and something on why I put that music into the service. These will ideally go up on Monday-Wednesday after that Sunday service.

Second: I'm trying to read more, and with that, i'll be hopefully serving up reviews of what i'm reading.

Third: I'm gonna try to do more posts like the last one, where i'm meditating on a given scripture (suggestions would be great) and writing either a prose or poetry piece and trying to look at it from some different angles and see what things look like.

Well, these are a taste of what should be coming soon-I'm pretty excited to have a reason to write again.

meditation on matthew 16:13-20

I always have a hard time sleeping on friday afternoons. The combination of three or four cups of coffee at breakfast while trying to be productive downtown usually does a pretty solid number on my sleeping patterns, and leaves me in thought in the early evening when I probably should be fast asleep. One of the things that I often end up devoting some brain space to is this passage from the book of Matthew. To those of us who can't quote this from memory(myself included), here's what it says(I'm quoting from my trusty ESV1 Thinline):

"Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ."

Now, before I begin, a disclaimer: These are only MY thoughts on the scripture. If you disagree with how I'm reading this(and you might well), you are MORE than welcome to do so. I'm not Jesus...just trying feebly to understand his words and to follow him.

So, to the point(s).

I almost always hear this taught as Jesus talking about Peter specifically, especially in reference to Peter being the "rock" of the church. However...what if by re-naming Peter...Peter, he was following in a vast Hebraic tradition of re-naming and naming things and people to testify to the work of God in the lives of his people? The Old Testament is FULL of instances of this, from Abraham-once called Abram, to Jacob-later called Israel, to David-who probably named every stone in Jerusalem at one point in time, not to mention Hosea-who married a prostitute (twice) and proceeded to name two of his kids Lo-ruhama (which means "no mercy"), and Lo-ammi (which means "not my people")-just to make a point. And his disciples ALL know this. They grew up in this culture of naming and renaming, and many of them already had names that were significant of not only who they were, but often of how their parents felt about their births.

So what if Jesus isn't really talking about Peter, but himself?

What if the "rock" that Jesus is building the church on is really the confession that Jesus is "the Christ, the Son of the living God"?

Would it change us?

Would we be more likely to walk through those now wide open gates of hell and seek and save our friends who don't know Jesus and are bound, blinded, and gagged by their sin?

Jesus says that he has given us-those who didn't arrive at the conclusion that Jesus is the Christ by our own wisdom and intellect-but have believed what our Father has told us about him-the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

THE keys.

Not just some of them.

All of them.

To the whole kingdom.

Keys with which to bind brokenness, oppression, hopelessness, despair, anger...

Keys with which to loose sinners from their bondage...

Would it change us?

New Things

I just realized that it has been almost a year since i've turned my attention towards this space, and that lack of attention is probably a thing nearly criminal. So...we'll do a quick update.

In the past year, I have:

Bought one navy blue '98 Volvo V70 station wagon.

Kept my job at work(A small triumph, considering that i've had something like 5 or 6 coworkers lose their jobs this year).

Driven aforementioned Volvo to Iowa and back.

Attended 4 Major League Baseball games (1 in St. Louis on the way back from aforementioned Iowa trip, and 3 in Boston).

Went to Boston!!!

Ended my no-hard-liquor-policy(This also happened in Boston, and was awesome).

Toured the Samuel Adams Brewery!

Stopped pursuit of one girl(we weren't right for another, and are now friends), stole one from her boyfriend(boy, was that a mistake, and now she's back with him and having his baby), and started dating a girl who I've known for almost 20 years(and she is amazing and constantly makes me want to be a better man than I was the day before).

Led worship at Crossings Church either 3 or 4 times.

Started teaching myself how to play Golf.

Participated in my first, and sadly, my last Whiskerino(which was AMAZING, btw).

I think that's a pretty basic, but pretty solid round up of this past year. I'm gonna give this thing another crack, but don't hold your breath, people.

riffs on a wound being stitched together

I was going to write about something else-but it's too soon.

I feel lonely today, almost half in-half out of the world. A fair amount should be attributed to the epic Boston-like greyness of the sky on this Friday the 13th, another amount to the lack of sleep due to working when normal people should be sleeping, and the rest to that which i will not write in detail about yet.

If i'm honest, which i will not give guarantees toward, i feel nothing. I'm not sure if the nothing i feel is a symptom of the emptiness and the lack of something, if it is merely anesthesia and will soon wear off, or if it means that i am really ok, and should forget all about this crazy business of chasing after something that i honestly wasn't 100% sure about and had talked myself into in the first place.

I'm feeling better now, if only for the addition of the coffee, and the beginning of my breakfast being consumed(very thick, very salty smoked bacon, if you are curious), and breakfast always makes me feel better, especially on dark and dreary days when all the best things seem just a little out of grasp. Thank Jesus for bacon and eggs.

Oh...Baseball

I'm wearing Chacos today. That may not mean much to you, but for me, it means that a happier time of year is just around the corner. And maybe, just maybe, i can say goodbye to boots and socks and start working on my farmer's tan in earnest. But until then, i'm dreaming of blue skies and green grass and the crack of the bat. That's right, i'm talking about baseball.

Now, you might be thinking, "Yeah? I'm a fan of baseball too-I enjoy going to games and occasionally, i'll watch a game on ESPN on Sunday nights if i don't have anything else better to do."

If that's you...then i have you beat.

In the past two weeks, i've gone a little baseball crazy. I've bought a replica Boston Red Sox road jersey bearing the name of one Curt Schilling(ed. note: yes, i know that Schilling is no longer under contract for the Sox, but i feel that i needed to make that my first jersey in return for the "Bloody Sock Game"), purchased membership in the Red Sox Nation, joined three (holy crap...three) fantasy baseball leagues, worn my Red Sox hat every single day, and i'm currently (yes, right now) watching Dice-K pitch against Korea in the World Baseball Classic on MLB.TV online (which might be the absolute coolest $110 i've ever spent on anything), and i also bought tickets to go see the Sox at Fenway, and am thinking about adding three more Sox games in Baltimore and making it a baseball adventure, complete with random minor league games every day.

Let's just say that if you cut me...i might bleed out yarn. Or cork.

Also...in other news...i bought a car on tuesday. More posts to come.

bread

do we come to the table simply

because the food we once had

was good?

because we took naps

induced by the abundance

of carbohydrates?

why is it that we bend our backs

looking either up or down

for bread from heaven?

do we really have such a lack

of trust in our friends

to not look there?

or do we just not believe

that you have been here

the whole time?

lyrics from 2-1-09

bits and pieces, broken bones

together lost and searching for a home

we sound our horns of distress

praying for an answer in the night

we built our city full of walls

tensions rage from days of old

the rockets keep on falling

we can only guess where they come from

my hands are stained

with the blood of sacrifice

and i was made 

to build this peace

with these nails

and with my flesh

given for this

given for this

you have changed our given name

taught our tongues to speak of grace

we take our swords and beat them

into bits upon your love

your hands were stained

with the blood of sacrifice

you were made

to build this peace

with these nails

and with your flesh

given for this

given for this