Theology/Religion
The Law and Gospel (of Lent) according to Chocolat
Film / Food / Grace in Practice / Religion

The Law and Gospel (of Lent) according to Chocolat

by Matt Schneider on Feb 22, 2012 • 1 Comment

Much like the nation of Greece, the season of Lent is characterized by “austerity measures.” And while such devotion can be beautiful, Lenten observance can also border on piety for piety’s sake, or what we might call works righteousness. Please do not misunderstand me: I enjoy and value the season. Who of us wouldn’t benefit from setting aside time to reflect on the grace and mercy of God (and our need to repent)?

The tension between the need for mercy that defines Lent (in theory) and the works righteousness with which it has all too often become synonymous is the theme…

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A Sermon for Ash Wednesday
Sermons / Theology

A Sermon for Ash Wednesday

by Nick Lannon on Feb 22, 2012 • 3 Comments

“Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:20-21).

Let us pray. Dear God in Heaven, we ask you to join us here, and we trust that you are here with us. May my words be your words, and all of our thoughts, your thoughts. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Today, we gather together for a unique purpose. Unlike any other service in the course of the year, unlike any Bible study, any prayer…

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W.H. Auden on Accidental Love and the Difference Between Pardon and Forgiveness
Books / Forgiveness / Law / Literature

W.H. Auden on Accidental Love and the Difference Between Pardon and Forgiveness

by David Zahl on Feb 20, 2012 • 3 Comments

From the great poet’s essay “The Prince’s Dog,” which can be found his invaluable collection, The Dyer’s Hand. Wystan is reflecting on Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure,” specifically in reference to Angelo (who is forgiven by Isabella but pardoned by the Duke). Of course, the insights transcend their context:

The one who forgives must be in a position to do something for the other which, if he were not forgiving, he would not do. This means that my enemy must be at my mercy; but, to the spirit of charity, it is irrelevant whether I am at my enemy’s mercy or he…

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Celebrity / Death

Tyler Perry on the Grace that Carried Whitney Houston Home

by David Zahl on Feb 20, 2012 • 7 Comments

What beautiful, beautiful 4 minutes. Can I get a Hallelujer?

PZ’s Podcast 95-97: Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Strack-Billerbeck, and Surprise (Symphony)
Art / Books / Film / Grace in Practice / Philosophy

PZ’s Podcast 95-97: Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Strack-Billerbeck, and Surprise (Symphony)

by Mockingbird on Feb 20, 2012 • No Comments

Episode 95: Bedknobs and Broomsticks

But this cast is really about causes and activisms.

The problem with attaching your personal cry for reparation and “just desserts” to larger symbolic passions and concerns is that when you’ve finally righted the wrong, and leveled the playing field, you can still find yourself unsatisfied. “Yes, we won. (Thank God.) Then why do I feel so bad?” The reason may be that you short-circuited the inward healing you needed in favor of a conceptual healing you didn’t.

John Sturges, the director of The Magnificent Seven, said that the problem with filming the novel By Love Possessed was…

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Another Week Ends: More Linsanity, IMonk Grace, TechnoSabbaths, Defending Nic Cage, DFW on Corrosive Illusions, Cougarton Abbey and GNR Rumors
Film / Grace in Practice / Humor / Literature / Music / Religion / Sports / Technology / Theology / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: More Linsanity, IMonk Grace, TechnoSabbaths, Defending Nic Cage, DFW on Corrosive Illusions, Cougarton Abbey and GNR Rumors

by David Zahl on Feb 17, 2012 • No Comments

1. Just in case you haven’t overdosed on Linsanity yet, David Brooks offers a sympathetic big-picture perspective in his column in The NY Times, highlighting how the culture of achievement and glory in professional sports conflicts with ethical framework espoused by most of the major religious traditions. Some will certainly say that Brooks going overboard, but I’m not so sure. Of course, there are plenty of valid, non-religious ways to rationalize competition, but attempts to do so on the basis of Christianity have always struck this blogger as particularly unconvincing, ht TB:

The moral ethos of sport is in tension with…

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Didn’t We Almost Have It All: Whitney Houston’s Life as Impasse
Addiction / Celebrity / Film / Music / Suffering

Didn’t We Almost Have It All: Whitney Houston’s Life as Impasse

by Jeff Hual on Feb 17, 2012 • 3 Comments

My wife and I were watching Saturday Night Live when NBC broke the news that Whitney Houston had died. Other than the time and place of her death, no other details were given. And, truthfully, we didn’t need any other details to have an inkling of what had happened. Just as with the announcement of Michael Jackson’s passing, we had all watched Whitney slide into her downward spiral.

I was in High School when “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” started airing on MTV. I’m sure everyone has seen it. Think about what we see there: one can’t help but see the…

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Can Anything Good Come From Harvard? The (In)Auspicious Origins of Jeremy Lin
Sports / Theology

Can Anything Good Come From Harvard? The (In)Auspicious Origins of Jeremy Lin

by Nick Lannon on Feb 16, 2012 • 3 Comments

The Reformers, specifically Martin Luther, often talked about God working in unexpected ways. Luther called this work of God sub contrario, that is, “under the opposite.” God, in other words, is most often found working in the thing that looks the opposite of what we would expect. As evidence, we can look to Biblical stories of Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners, forgiving thieves on crosses (okay, one thief on one cross), and resurrecting the dead. Jesus’ modus operandi seems to have continually confounded those among whom he lived. This idea of God working sub…

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Songs of the Outlaw: Yours, Mine, and Billy Joe Shaver’s “Serious Souls”
Forgiveness / Music / Suffering

Songs of the Outlaw: Yours, Mine, and Billy Joe Shaver’s “Serious Souls”

by Ethan on Feb 16, 2012 • No Comments

Kris Kristofferson is known to have said that Billy Joe Shaver may be the greatest living songwriter, the Hemingway of songwriting, but also that, if life were TV, he’d be on at 4 A.M. He has written songs for Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, George Jones, Patty Loveless, the Allman Brothers; Waylon Jennings used his songs for most of Honky Tonk Heroes, Willie Nelson has made a name with his songs. He’s legendary, but paradoxically hidden. As if he had a knack for it, some privately premeditated scheme to lay low–like Jesus or something–he managed to work behind the…

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Book Review: The Meaning of Marriage by Tim Keller
Books / Relationships / Reviews / Theology

Book Review: The Meaning of Marriage by Tim Keller

by Bryan J. on Feb 16, 2012 • 3 Comments

Two things led me to pick up Tim Keller’s new book on marriage, both of which were pressing. The first: I needed a “marriage book” for Pastoral Care class at seminary. The second: I had an engagement ring burning a hole in my pocket, and it was gonna be there for another week before I could “unload it.” So you might say matrimony has been on my mind, for both academic and personal reasons. Seeing as I also happen to contribute on occasion to Mockingbird, the question quickly took on a larger scope: where does a grace-dependent Gospel junkie like me…

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Why Am I So Obsessed With That Person From Sixth Grade? Cyberstalking and the Permanent Reunion
Identity / Law / Social Science / Technology

Why Am I So Obsessed With That Person From Sixth Grade? Cyberstalking and the Permanent Reunion

by David Zahl on Feb 15, 2012 • 3 Comments

The rejection we feel when we find out that someone has de-friended us on Facebook or stopped following us on Twitter must be the definition of a ‘modern problem.’ We usually discover these things by accident, which probably accounts for why they sneak through our defenses so easily. Just the other day, for example, I noticed that someone had un-followed me on Twitter, and almost immediately, I found myself drawn into a web of self-recrimination. It was particularly silly since I was about to stop following them. And I knew my reasons had very little to do with my esteem…

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A Wednesday Sonnet from Gerard Manley Hopkins
Poetry / Suffering

A Wednesday Sonnet from Gerard Manley Hopkins

by Ethan on Feb 15, 2012 • No Comments

Not, I’ll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee;
Not untwist–slack they may be–these last strands of man
In me or, most weary, cry I can no more. I can;
Can something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be.

But ah, but O thou terrible, why wouldst thou rude on me
Thy wring-world right foot rock? lay a lionlimb against me? scan
With darksome devouring eyes my bruised bones? and fan,
O in turns of tempest, me heaped there; me frantic to avoid thee and flee?

Why? That my chaff might fly; my grain lie, sheer and clear.
Nay in all that toil, that coil, since…

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