Forgiveness
Filled with Wood Shavings and Set on Fire: Thoughts on Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead
Books / Forgiveness / Reviews

Filled with Wood Shavings and Set on Fire: Thoughts on Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead

by Mockingbird on Jun 12, 2013 • No Comments

This one comes to us from Mockingbird friend Michael Bender.

Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead provides an incredibly sincere look at grace, and the legitimate challenge that can arise when we are required to grant it to our thorniest enemies. The novel contains your garden variety of churchy macro-themes, including commentary on the sacraments, vocation, and prayer. I was considering whether or not each of these themes deserved an installment in a several-part series exploring the book but, alas, I have decided just to write about the largest theme—the classic metaphor of the Prodigal Son—hoping to allow future readers of the book a…

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Hopelessly Devoted: Matthew Chapter Four Verses Five through Seven
Bible / Forgiveness / Literature

Hopelessly Devoted: Matthew Chapter Four Verses Five through Seven

by Mockingbird on Jun 10, 2013 • No Comments

If you’ve got a new copy of The Mockingbird Devotional, good! Turn to today, June 10, and you’ll find this meditation from our very own Will McDavid. If you don’t have a copy of The Mockingbird Devotional, well, just read below, and then purchase one for yourself, here. You won’t regret it–at least if you’ve got a little Ruby Turbin in you…

Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels…

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Comics / Forgiveness

A Quick Calvin and Hobbes

by David Zahl on Jun 5, 2013 • No Comments

chapology

Hopelessly Devoted: Zephaniah Chapter Three Verses Fourteen Through Seventeen
Bible / Children / Forgiveness

Hopelessly Devoted: Zephaniah Chapter Three Verses Fourteen Through Seventeen

by Mockingbird on Jun 3, 2013 • No Comments

Our first installment, post-publication(!), so what better time to get on ‘the same page’ and post the June 3rd entry, which comes to us from Alex Large:

Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The LORD has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil. On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, “Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak. The LORD your God…

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Daniel’s Beatrice: Some Stray Observations on Sundance’s Rectify
Forgiveness / Relationships / Religion / Reviews / Suffering / TV

Daniel’s Beatrice: Some Stray Observations on Sundance’s Rectify

by Ethan Richardson on May 30, 2013 • 1 Comment

So far I haven’t been all too impressed with what has been said about Ray McKinnon’s Rectify, the new six-episode show on the Sundance Channel, which was just cleared for a second season next year. It’s not that the reviews have been negative or untrue—they just haven’t seemed to be on the level upon which the show wants to operate. And now, in trying to sort out what I’ve just watched in the last couple weeks, I understand that I cannot do this either.

You may have seen previews or the striking ads on subways or sidebars, and if you did,…

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The Many Jesus Complexes of Star Trek
Film / Forgiveness / Relationships / Theology

The Many Jesus Complexes of Star Trek

by Mockingbird on May 23, 2013 • 3 Comments

Let Intern Thursday commence! This one comes from newest Mockingfledgling, Win Jordan. For those who haven’t seen Into Darkness yet, spoiler alert!

The second installment of the reinvigorated Star Trek franchise hit screens on May 16th, raking in an impressive $86.7 million dollars in the domestic box office over its premiere weekend. Director J.J. Abrams and his crew kept the film shrouded in mystery which made for eager internet speculation amongst the members of the rabid Trekie fanbase. The special effects and the performances, mostly notably Benedict Cumberbatch as the villain, Khan, alone made it a must-see summer movie, even…

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For Those Who Love Poorly: Forgiveness in The Woodsman & Around the Bend
Film / Forgiveness / Grace in Practice / Relationships / Suffering

For Those Who Love Poorly: Forgiveness in The Woodsman & Around the Bend

by B.I.C on May 16, 2013 • 3 Comments

“Forgiveness is the name of love practiced among people who love poorly. The hard truth is that all people love poorly. We need to forgive and be forgiven every day, every hour increasingly. That is the great work of love among the fellowship of the weak that is the human family.” –Henri Nouwen

“…God’s grace and forgiveness, while free to the recipient, are always costly for the giver…. From the earliest parts of the Bible, it was understood that God could not forgive without sacrifice. No one who is seriously wronged can “just forgive” the perpetrator…. But when you forgive, that…

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On the Religion of Mindful Self-Loathing
Children / Everyday / Forgiveness / Relationships

On the Religion of Mindful Self-Loathing

by Ethan Richardson on Apr 30, 2013 • 1 Comment

We know the old trope, either in family sitcoms or from within our own dramatic units: the inner-mirror moment when we realize we’ve just said something we always hated our parents saying. We find ourselves–or someone close finds us–doing the things we promised we’d never do when we got out of the house, when we one day had kids, when we held a steady job… The revelations in these vernaculars are generally lighthearted, but not all are, and it is nearly always painful to see that we have “accidentally” become the non-example we had striven to prove wrong.

This is what…

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Another Week Ends: Fairness, The Life of Wiman, Motherly Love, Malick Sacraments, Karr Talks Saunders, Anderson Shoots Prada, and the Ke$ha Trump Card
Art / Books / Children / Death / Everyday / Film / Forgiveness / Music / Relationships / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Fairness, The Life of Wiman, Motherly Love, Malick Sacraments, Karr Talks Saunders, Anderson Shoots Prada, and the Ke$ha Trump Card

by Ethan Richardson on Apr 26, 2013 • 1 Comment

1) The Chronicle released a preview last month to Wiman’s newest piece of work, My Bright Abyss, which we’ve already pulled from a couple of times, here and here, and the life and the illness that spurred it. Jay Parini writes that poetry criticism and commentary began by pulling the fabric of a piece of work as closely as possible upon the tables of lived experience, but Parini also notes that contemporary criticism has become so po-mo-phobic of plainspeak that it winds up saying nothing at all. But Wiman, on the other hand, with sickness, has been voided of this…

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Hopelessly Devoted: John Chapter Twenty One Verse Seventeen
Bible / Forgiveness

Hopelessly Devoted: John Chapter Twenty One Verse Seventeen

by Mockingbird on Apr 22, 2013 • 1 Comment

Coming home from our New York Conference, where many of you picked up the conference edition of The Mockingbird Devotional: Good News for Today (and Every Day), this morning’s devotion comes from DZ.

[Christ] said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.” (ESV)

A quick recap of Peter’s “greatest hits” in the New Testament:

a) When Jesus tells…

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Another Week Ends: Forgiveness, Giving Trees, Therapists, and Aging with Grace
Children / Forgiveness / Grace in Practice / Radio / Relationships / Technology / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Forgiveness, Giving Trees, Therapists, and Aging with Grace

by Bryan J. on Apr 19, 2013 • No Comments

1. Forgiveness and apology seems to be a theme in the news as of late, or at least it was prior to Monday’s heartbreaking news from Boston. CNN’s belief blog highlighted the story of one man’s quest to forgive and restore the man who killed his brother when they were teens. I found the story enlightening as it ping-ponged between the two poles of forgiveness by grace (the victim’s brother) and forgiveness by works righteousness (the recently released killer). Quote: “I think for me, forgiveness will come in doing good works, trying to help others. But as far as forgiving…

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From One Juliet to Another: Sufferers Comforting Sufferers
Church / Everyday / Forgiveness / Grace in Practice / Literature / News / Psychology / Radio / Relationships / Suffering / Theology / Theology/Religion

From One Juliet to Another: Sufferers Comforting Sufferers

by R-J Heijmen on Apr 16, 2013 • 9 Comments

One of the criticisms of Gospel preaching is that it can, at times, be gloomy. “Do we have to hear about sin again?”, the complaint goes, “Do you have to be so down on humanity?”, “Can’t we talk about how great life is sometimes?”, “Can’t you give me some self-improvement tools?”

To these voices the Gospel preacher replies that life is often (perhaps mostly) hard, and that as much as we might crave a word of optimism, a little fuel for the part of us that longs to live in blissful ignorance (or denial), what we really need is not to…

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The Weight of Being a Gentleman
Forgiveness / Grace in Practice / Law / Sports

The Weight of Being a Gentleman

by Matthew Stokes on Apr 2, 2013 • 3 Comments

If you are a fan of college athletics, you are no doubt aware that the University of Alabama – my alma mater – lost one of its most beloved sons this past weekend. Mal Moore, who recently stepped down as athletics director , passed away on Saturday, March 30. A gentle, unassuming man in many respects, Coach Moore was a giant. As a player, coach and administrator, the man was part of ten – ten! – national championships in football. The athletics programs at the University are performing at a very high level, with excellent coaches and strong revenue streams.…

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Sorry Not Sorry
Forgiveness / News / Psychology / Radio / Theology

Sorry Not Sorry

by Michael Sansbury on Apr 2, 2013 • 2 Comments

The Vances lived in number seven. They had a different father and mother. They were Eileen’s father and mother. When they were grown up he was going to marry Eileen. He hid under the table. His mother said:

– O, Stephen will apologize.

Dante said:

– O, if not, the eagles will come and pull out his eyes.–

Pull out his eyes,
Apologize,
Apologize,
Pull out his eyes.
Apologize,
Pull out his eyes,
Pull out his eyes,
Apologize.

James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Chapter 1

Apologies are not hard; they are impossible. From the time we are children, we are forced to say that we’re sorry for things…

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The Day of All Days: Reflections on Haydn’s “The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour On The Cross”
Art / Bible / Forgiveness / Music / Religion / Suffering / Theology

The Day of All Days: Reflections on Haydn’s “The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour On The Cross”

by Mockingbird on Mar 29, 2013 • 1 Comment

This morning, we are honored to bring you original commentary on the meaning of Good Friday by the inestimable Paul Walker, written as part of a special broadcast of Joseph Haydn’s “The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour On the Cross”on WTJU-Charlottesville, 91.1 FM. For those unfamiliar with the piece, it was commissioned by the Canon of Cadiz in 1786 for the Good Friday service at the Church of Santa Cueva in Cadiz, Spain, and the performance below was recorded in the very same place.

Good Friday is the day of all days for Christians. Yes, there is Christmas and…

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