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That’s Christmas!
With Christmas now upon us, something I posted last year that (for me at least) sets the right mood for the season:
That’s Christmas! from St Helen’s Church on Vimeo.
C. S. Lewis on The Nativity
Among the oxen (like an ox I’m slow)
I see a glory in the stable grow
Which, with the ox’s dullness might at length
Give me an ox’s strength.
I see a glory in the stable grow
Which, with the ox’s dullness might at length
Give me an ox’s strength.
Among the asses (stubborn I as they)
I see my Savior where I looked for hay;
So may my beastlike folly learn at least
The patience of a beast.
Among the sheep (I like a sheep have strayed)
I watch the manger where my Lord is laid;
Oh that my baa-ing nature would win thence
Some woolly innocence.
A Mini-Conference Preview, Part 3: I Don’t Want To Be A Freak (But I Can’t Help Myself)
With the upcoming Mockingbird Mini-Conference now less than six weeks away (!) we continue our series of posts to familiarize everyone with the conference theme and why we chose it – sort of a preview of what the talks will entail, and one that we hope will grab you (and convince you to register ASAP!). This week’s contribution is a preview of “Grace in Addiction: Help for Those Who Cannot Help Themselves” courtesy of John Zahl and Tom Becker:
Addiction is no laughing matter. The devastation it causes forces us to question the limits of the human will’s ability to…
A Mini-Conference Preview, Part 2: The Singer and The Song
With the upcoming Mockingbird Mini-Conference now less than seven weeks away (!) we continue our series of posts to familiarize everyone with the conference theme and why we chose it – sort of a preview of what the talks will entail, and one that we hope will grab you (and convince you to register ASAP). This week’s contribution is a preview of the “Preaching Pre-Conference” courtesy of Paul Zahl:
St. Francis wished to say that the person and example of the messenger is the main thing. A whole ‘nother tradition has wished to say that the message is the main thing.…
A Mini-Conference Preview (Part 1 – Everybody Hurts… Sometimes)
With the upcoming Mockingbird Mini-Conference only fifty days away (!) I wanted to start a series of posts familiarizing everyone with the conference theme and why we chose it, sort of a preview of what my talk will entail, and one that I’m hoping will grab you (and convince you to register ASAP).
I’ve come to understand in my own life that the deep substratum that trumps all other categories of human identity is suffering. We all suffer. And this conference seeks to reach people on that level. Let me explain:
One morning last Spring, a member of my Sunday…
NOV 19&20! God’s Grace When We Need It Most: The Gospel For Hard Times
This November 19th and 20th, please join us at Christ Church in Pensacola, Florida, together with our special guest, The Rev. Dr. Paul F. M. Zahl, as we take an in-depth look at how God’s Grace can find us and transform us even in the midst of difficult and trying times.
This mini-conference takes the same approach as this blog (hopefully!): accessible to both believer and nonbeliever alike, culturally-engaged, theologically passionate, and, despite the heavy subject matter, fun! We also anticipate that it will be a time of extraordinary warmth, humor and fellowship – a great opportunity to reconnect with old…
Leon Morris on The Atonement
“We ought to be quite clear that no full and final theory of the atonement has yet been given and that this is not simply because we have not yet been fortunate enough to hit on the right solution. It is because we are not good enough as men and not profound enough as thinkers ever to get to the bottom of the subject. The problem is too big for us. Our minds cannot take in at once and the same time all the complexities involved.
“But the problem is not only a mental one. It is…
SAVE THE DATE! Pensacola Mini-Conference November 19/20
Looking for a warm weather retreat this Fall?! I’m very pleased to announce that the second annual Mockingbird Mini-Conference at Christ Church in Pensacola, Florida will take place on November 19-20, 2010. Our primary speaker will be Dr. Paul F. M. Zahl, with a number of other, to-be-announced Mockingbird contributors also on tap to make presentations. Not to be missed!
Plans are in the works for Dr. Zahl to host a pre-conference seminar/workshop on preaching during the day on Friday the 19th, with the main conference taking place Friday evening and through the day on Saturday the 20th.
More…
I Hate Graveyards And Old Pawnshops
I saw some sad news a while back. Evidently the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans museum has closed and the owners recently auctioned off all of the memorabilia, including Roy’s (taxidermied) horse Trigger and dog Bullet (I’m glad they didn’t stuff Dale, too!).
Rogers wasn’t an icon of my generation, but with the advent of cable television and a lack of programming to fill the available time slots, suddenly the wild west was riding through the living room of my childhood. I loved The Lone Ranger, The Cisco Kid, and Wanted Dead or Alive, as well as the great old…
Stiffelio, Cards From Another World, and A Great Eucatastrophe
Earlier this summer, Mockingbird recommended an 1850 Verdi opera entitled Stiffelio. If you managed to catch this on DVD, you were no doubt confronted as I was with a theme as old as the Gospel, a theme that is the Gospel: the theme of our brokenness and God’s unmerited favor reaching out to us in that brokenness in order to rescue us.
Stiffelio deals with the infidelity of a pastor’s wife, the pastor’s subsequent discovery of it, and the way in which forgiveness unfolds, which comes in a way that could only be from God.
The most crushing scene takes place in…
Speaking of Thornton Wilder…
The great author expressing a similar sentiment as the one which inspires PZ’s new DVD (below), slightly elucidated, and touching on some of Mockingbird’s core concerns. This comes from the final paragraph of the foreward to his book of short plays The Angel That Troubled The Waters:
“The last four plays here were written within a year and a half. Almost all the plays in this book are religious, but religious in that dilute fashion that is a believer’s concession to a contemporary standard of good manners. But these four plant their flag as boldly as they may.…
Strange Warning Label…
I found this book (with it’s curious warning label) yesterday at Books-A-Million:
Could this be a reaction to a rash of returns from unwary Protestants? Did those Protestants list “Didn’t know it was a Catholic book” as the reason for return?
Or could it be something more disquieting than the merely comical: could it be that because of the currently blurred focus of the modern evangelical movement, a title like “The Imitation of Christ” just seems to fit right in with “What Would Jesus Do”, such that the message of evangelicals has now become utterly vague and indistinguishable.
At…
Mary Karr Discusses "Lit"
This one comes to us by way of MB contributor Emily. I think it’s safe to say that Mary Karr is a fellow Mockingbird, whether she knows it yet or not! Her life story reminds me of another MB favorite, Brennan Manning (author of “The Ragamuffin Gospel”), of whom it’s been said that the Lord allowed him to walk through dark valleys so that he could later lead others to the Light.
A Creative Way To Thwart The First Use Of The Law…
There were times this little trick would have been helpful in downtown Birmingham, Alabama as well (say, around 20th Street and 6th Avenue North!):
Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.
(Romans 13:1)
Show and Tell…
I took this picture the other evening and thought it so breathtaking I just wanted to share it. This is sunset over Perdido Bay in Northwest Florida:
Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made…(Romans 1:20)
Ken: This reminds me of the story of Bill Graham explaining basic economics...
David Zahl: Matt- Not sure if you've had the chance to read My Bright Abyss yet, ...
Bryan J.: I too have a difficult time with Vampire Weekend, though I'm trying ha...
mark mcculley: 1 Corinthians 6:20 You are not your own for you were bought with a pri...
Bill Chapman: I really cannot see why anyone coulkd be opposed to Esperanto. I’ve us...