The Artistic Impulse,etc.

My class, Theology and the Artistic Impulse, has a blog. Its a fantastic course. I wish it was spread out over the whole term and not in an intensive format. We talk a lot about trinitarian theology and how it is revealed through the arts. Schoenberg thought he was all that and a sacher torte. The professor included a great lecture on how music reveals further understanding of the Trinity.

So last night was my birthday party. I think that I have a habit of over-inviting. I invited 35, thinking no more then ten would show. We had about 20. We descended on Cyclops, which is a bar about a block from the school (since I just got out of Hebrew class). It was good. I needed to feel loved. Danica and about 5 other Olympians came and fought rush hour traffic for my love. Tomika did my make-up. A good number of M.Div.s were there. Tim had a dream that he was going to dress up as David Gahan of Depeche Mode for my birthday...I'm disappointed he didn't. It was a good day.

31 doesn't feel terribly different than 30.

Life is hard

This has been a rough week. I worked 24 rigorous hours and tried to do my school work in-between those hours, couple with 2 2-hour classes.

It is quite difficult to balance seminary and work. As you can probably tell, Mars Hill Grad School is a community and an institution that really provides such support, depth, and life for me. I am a person that comes alive when exploring the profundity of God and creation. It has been difficult, but wonderful.

Work: I like coffee and I like people. I enjoy being a barista at the market. However, there is this corporate side to it that sneaks in. Wednesday was our new promotion launch. My manager was there all day and I felt the pressure to "upsell" (Do you want a muffin with your latte? Do you want fries with that?). I'm a barista and a seminarian, not a salesperson. Anyway, there were all these little things (and bigger things) that I'll refrain from saying that had happened that day. I was busy and had no rest.

I got off work that day at 2, went home and lied down for about ten minutes (Thank you God that I live in Belltown), and then went to school for my 3:00 class. My walk to the school was wearied, angry, and frustrated. I shot mental bullets at many passers by, especially tourists. (How dare they take up space and be in my way? How dare they look good and have a good time? I don't get such luxuries.)

When I got to school, Scott asked me how I was doing. He saw something was up. He invited me to sit down with him and I crashed in that chair in the lounge. I collapsed in tears and weariness. It was good to have him listen to me, especially since I live on my own and two of my dear friends are away.

I worked the next day, and it was hard again. That was Thursday. I spent the last half of Thursday and most of Friday recuperating: shades drawn, watching Lord of the Rings.
Hopefully I can catch up on homework today. However, my body (I think) has responded to my stress as I am fighting a sore throat.

striving to get by in pricey, pricey Seattle

The Flight of the Conchords sing my pain. At least they have synthesizers.

Sometimes I Feel Like This...

Further Proof That My School Rocks!

Not only will Mars Hill Graduate School be featured in this month's Belltown Messenger and on the front page, we were given a fantastic write up in the Seattle P-I!

I continue to hope and pray that MHGS continues to have a good impact on the Belltown community. MHGS, along with First United Methodist, are asking the questions and attempting to be Christ in this area of Seattle.

It's an odd community because it has many new condominiums housing the young and wealthy that live amongst such poverty. When things go well, the paper calls it "Belltown". When something criminal happens, its referred to an older name: the Denny Regrade.

This creates opportunity to bless both parties. May the Spirit grant us creativity and boldness in revealing the humanity of both groups to each other and let love pour down from the heavens.

Born in the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time: The Tragedy of the East German Olympic Young Women

Brett and I watched this documentary last night on PBS. Secrets of the Dead: Doping for Gold tells the story of the young women of the East German Olympic team in the 70s. They were born behind the Iron Curtain, part of a country under constant surveillance of the Stasi while living in constant fear and paranoia. Gulags and disappearances loom as a threat to any person that disobeys the Soviet regime.
These girls were doped, mostly without their knowing, with steroids. This resulted in increased liver trouble and incredible masculinisation: deepened voices, pale pattern body hair, Adam's apples and the like.
These women suffer irreversible damage. Katerina (I believe that is her nam) is now in her 40s. She looks like a man. She said that she just stopped trying to wear feminine closthing since so many commented in public that she looks like a man. This breaks my heart.
Another figured that she was so far down the man path already, she had a sex change. Andreas married a former swimming medalist from the same era.
What broke my heart the most is what I now have led up to. A silver medalist swimmer of that era, an American, traveled to Berlin to make sense of this. She felt that, in a sense, she deserves the gold medal and wished that the gold medalist would give it up for her. That would be right to her. She met this woman. This East German woman suffered abuse under the communist regime and has incredible health issues as a result. The markings on her soul will be taken to her grave.
As the American medalist said "As an American..." it just ran fingernails over my inner chalkboard. I know what she was meaning. When I moved back to the States, its the thing that infuriates me: entitlement. I deserve what I want because: I earned it, worked hard for it, paid for it, I'm an American.
As a barista in the coffee capital of the world, I deal with rather particular people on their purchase: not too hot, extra hot, no foam, split shot, wet cappuccino, dry, espresso picked by an old blind man in Zimbabwe while whistling show tunes.
At what price?
Somewhere along the line, humanity is ignored. We may not see it, but there is a person behind our purchases. There are people behind our "entitlement".

What is a good reading of Scripture?

The last part of the term is always crazy. Blogging is on the lower end of the priority list. Papers, counseling practicums, group presentations, and an art project later I have finished. Now I have about two weeks until I start Hebrew.

Dr. Joann Badley taught perhaps my favorite class this term. "Reading Practices" used to be called "Interpretive Methods". I'm very pleased with the textbook: The Art of Reading Scripture, edited by E.F. Davis and R.B. Hays. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003.

We looked at historical and textual criticism, literary method, Patristic scholars,critical traditioning, deconstruction, and other forms of approaches.
Our final day, we came up with a working list of approaches of the reading the Bible.

Here is what we came up with:

What is a good (‘better’) reading?

• Living in the primary rhythms of scripture: Exodus/ Resurrection
• Ways the story of God disarms the other stories of our culture
• Claiming truth where you see it.
• Habits of reading and practices of discipleship affect our reading (guard against bad readings)
• Frees us to hold complexity rather than reducing the meaning (e.g. to a moral reading); especially with respect to the application
• Invites other people into wonder and imagination, because primary purpose is the presence of God; so may have drawn on various other readings (so not just ‘academic’, as per Sadducees);
• Enliven as per, not in dissonance with, the life of Christ; gain understanding through worship and other forms of Christian formation.
• Saturated with humility; God is big, and knowing there are other voices;
• AUTHOR/author; incarnational theology; Acknowledge the trinitarian character (kenotic work) of God.
• Remember canonical frame
• Informs the way that we live (reciprocity: the way we live forms the way we understand); implications for spiritual practice as well (e.g. food); implications for life in community (e.g. forgiveness, peace-maker); requires something of us (challenges us)
• How does it bear witness to God; cross as corrective
• Pays attention to the actual words; not constructing a hypothetical text