From Touchstone Magazine.

I don’t usually blog about K-State sports, even though I am the second biggest K-State fan I know (the biggest fan blogs here), but I wanted to say something about this.  Some guys who specialize in blogging Cats news have said everything I would say, so I’ll summarize with two points:

1.  Michael Beasley is the best college basketball player I ever saw in person.  I made it to two games this year, including the thriller in Norman in which Mike made a last second shot to beat the Sooners on their home court.  I’ve never seen anyone like him, and besides all that, he seemed like a really likable guy.  My kids are all fans, and that’s OK with me.  And I’d like to point out that the guy the sportswriters gave the Player of the Year Award to scored 17 points against the University of Kansas City team that eventually won the big game against the team that couldn’t be bothered to practice their free throw shooting.  The player who deserved the player of the year award scored 25 and 39 against the same KCU team.  FWIW.

2. I think he’s made the right decision.  As much as I would love to see him play even one more year for the Cats, it would be crazy to risk an injury and potentially miss the chance to be financially independent and take care of his mother and family.  It was a privilege to see him play, and we’re all proud to have had him in the purple for a year.  I hope he tears up the next league like he did this one. Thanks, Mike.  EMAW!

“‘Having said this he breathed his last.’ Dead. Jesus is dead…We are told in John 1:18 that without the Son no one can see the Father. Von Balthasar, therefore, reminds us ‘when the Son, the Word of the Father is dead, then no one can see God, hear of him or attain him. And this day exists, when the Son is dead, and the Father, accordingly, inaccessible.’ This is the terror, the silence of the Father, to which Jesus has committed himself, this is why he cried the cry of abandonment. He has commended himself to the Father so he might undergo the dark night of death. Jesus commends himself to the Father, becoming for us all that is contrary to God.”

     –Stanley Hauerwas, Cross-Shattered Christ: Meditations on the Seven Last Words, 97.

“We take comfort…that we are citizens fo the greatest, most powerful nation in the history of the world. Doing so, we are tempted to support exercises of American might and wealth that may be unjust but are assumed to be necessary to secure our nation’s power.  To be a citizen of such a nation at least suggests our lives will not be forgotten. When the history of history is written, America, like Rome, cannot be forgotten; as Americans we will have a place in history. Is it any wonder that a people so formed believe that what is happening in this man Jesus’ life is something about our significance? Is it any wonder that we find the lean and gaunt account of the life and crucifixion of Christ so unsatisfying?”

     –Stanley Hauerwas, Cross-Shattered Christ: Meditations on the Seven Last Words, 41-42.

“Is it any wonder we find Good Friday so shattering? On this day and with these words, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing,” all our presumptions about God and the salvation wrought by God are rendered presumptuous. Moreover, that is how we discover that what happens on the cross really is about us, but the ‘what’ that is about us challenges our presumptions about what kind of salvation we need. Through the cross of Christ we are drawn into the mystery of the Trinity. This is God’s work on our behalf. We are made members of a kingdom governed by a politics of forgiveness and redemption. The world is offered an alternative unimaginable by our sin-determined fantasies.”

     –Stanley Hauerwas, Cross-Shattered Christ: Meditations on the Seven Last Words, 31.

“I believe with all my heart that the constant temptation to betray the gospel, a temptation amply displayed by the history of the church, cannot be resisted in our day by Christians trying to imitate the false humility of tolerance. Rather, the only resource for Christians to resist the ideological distortions of our faith–distortions all the more tempting because to be ’self-servingly dramatic’ seems a better alternative than to be boring–is our faith in the God to whom Christ prays on the cross.”

     –Stanley Hauerwas, Cross-Shattered Christ: Meditations on the Seven Last Words, 19.

I have been converting my classical CDs to .mp3 a little bit at a time for months now, for ease of access, to be able to listen to it on my iPod, and so on.  So a few days ago I was sorting through the CDs (there are only 100 or so, not a huge collection) and found myself calling the pile of CDs I had not yet imported to my computer “the ones I haven’t dubbed yet”.  Oops.

Jamey Bennett summarizes an interesting argument by Peter Toon against the change from “And with your Spirit” to “And also with you” as a response to “The Lord be with you”.  Setting the exchange in the context of the liturgy and the relationship of the pastor/priest to the people is helpful, although I am unconvinced that the same meaning could not be found with “And also with you”.

The real question, as far as I’m concerned (and perhaps this is addressed in the book that Jamey is summarizing) is this: Why don’t we respond with “The Lord bless you”?  (See Ruth 2:4)

Here’s another home run by Douglas Jones.

Discussions about the California court decision regarding home schooling have been making the rounds for a few days now, and various other folks have already mentioned it: e.g. here, here, here, and here.

Really, we’re not surprised by this decision, but I guess my jaw dropped a little when I read this from the judge’s explanation:

“A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare.”

In the words of the teacher of my children, “At least they’re honest”.