Remember when I went to school...

So, several folks have asked about my classes this quarter and I realized that I completely forgot to update you all on that aspect of my life. So, here's a quick summary. I'd be happy to elaborate on an individual basis via facebook or e-mail if you'd like.

-Exegetical Method and Practice

This is the class where I learn how to use the Greek that I spent all of the fall quarter learning. We basically look at a specific text and consider the following in order to pull out every little thing from the passage.

-Historical and literary context

-Author and recipient

-Changes made to the manuscripts over the years

-language and use of tenses and specific terms

-Anything else that seems pertinent.

The purpose of exegesis (Ex-Eh-Jesus) is to make conclusions about the text from all of these elements that are hopefully useful in teaching and preaching. It's been pretty fun to look at some familiar texts, look at the original language and discern the purpose behind what's being written.

-The Life of Jesus

This might be my favorite course this quarter. We're looking at the elements of Jesus' life from a historical perspective, jewish perspective and current perspective. What do we know and understand about who Jesus was and what he said/did? How does this fit into the fact that he was a Jewish man living in Palestine in the first century? It's been pretty fun to get into some old Jewish texts that Jesus and his followers would have been familiar with. Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

Jesus healing a man on the sabbath and getting criticized by the Jewish leaders at the time.

The questions at hand is:

-What is lawful to do on the Sabbath?

-What constitutes work?

-Can one heal on the sabbath?

-What does the Jewish law say?

-Are the temple leaders breaking the sabbath by sacrificing on the sabbath, because this would technically be work for them?

-The conclusion is that Jesus taught that they two greatest commandments are to Love God and love neighbor. If the law comes before mercy, it breaks these commandments.

Reading that might interest you:

-The Meaning of Jesus, Two Visions by Marcus Borg & N.T. Wright

-Familiar Stranger, An Introduction to Jesus of Nazareth by Michael J. McClymond

-The Historical Jesus: 5 Views by James K. Belby

Homelessness/Congregations and Community Partnership

I heart this class. We've been studying the issue of homelessness in america since the early '80's when it first became a public issue. Looking at the responses to homelessness over the years, what's worked and what has not worked. How the attitude of the average american has changed over time. Much of what we're reading are governmental grants and programs to help end homelessness. Discussing how the response to homelessness MUST take into account other elements than simply the lack of housing. Substance abuse and mental illness being two of the biggest. This class requires that we have contact hours with homeless in our community so this was the kick in the butt that I needed to get over to a transitional housing community in my neighborhood called Door of Hope. (more to come on Door of Hope at another time, because it is slowly changing my life... watch out).

Readings:

-Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets by John P. Kretzmann

-Walking with the Poor by Bryant Myers (Suzannah... This might be a book for you!)

Please let me know if you're interested in more about these classes, I'd be happy to tell you more.

Tell me, am I right to think...

that there could be nothing better...

... than if this curling team's uniform had a matching sweater.

Enough said.

(NOTE: This posting can also be sung to the tune of chorus of The Postal Service's song, Nothing Better)

In an LA state of mind...

First of all: Sorry for the delay in postings.

And now onto the musings of my mind...

So about a month ago, while driving home from church we drove past a "freshly occurred" car accident. We pulled over to help as best we could. Neither of the drivers were too badly injured but one of them was an older gentleman (late 60's-ish) who was unable to get out of his car because the door was stuck. I hopped in the passenger seat and took a light eval of his injuries and helped control the bleeding from some cuts on his hands and mostly chatted with him until the EMTs, helped him call his wife and exchanged his information with the other driver. I left my new friend, Eddie to the professionals and chatted with this gentleman who lives in the apartment building which the cars ran into. Joshua was prepared with an entire "crash kit" because there are accidents at this intersection so frequently. We left the scene after exchanging facebook information with Joshua and completely forgetting to leave Eddie with my information.

A few days later, Joshua sent me a facebook message because Eddie wanted to get in touch with me and sent me his phone number. I then, completely forgot to call him (because I'm a jerk apparently) A few days ago, Joshua sent me another message because Eddie called him again in hopes of getting in touch with me. So, I finally called him back. He only wanted to express his gratitude for sitting with him and helping him out. He then did something I'm not used to. He asked if I've heard of the Internet Movie Database. He suggested I check out his page just to get an idea of what he'd worked on. It turns out that the gentleman from the accident played the guy with the ugly daughter in A League of Their Own!

The impression I got from Eddie when speaking with him on the phone was that he was a bit surprised that I had no idea who he was. I told him that I was glad I got a chance to meet him as a real person and not as an actor. He also was a bit surprised that I was a seminary student and coming from church when our lives intersected. I have a fair amount of friends working in the entertainment industry but rarely do I run into "celebrities." or should I say... rarely do "celebrities" run into each other right in front of me.