The Gospel of Squatch

Nacho Libre

2006-07-04T09:52:00.000-07:00

In my ongoing attempt to get back into blogging I am going to keep it simple. So I love Jack Black. I think the man is brilliant. So I am going to go see it today. Now who would go see this amazing flick with the one and only SQ?? Would that be his awesome wife K?? No she lucked out and doesn't have to go. Would it be his scores of mates that would think going to see a Jack Black flick and then going to chow down on some Chinese buffet? Nope, they all fled the scene. I am actually going with T the wee man. This is not a complaint this is a cool development. He is one of the kids that lives in the Shire under the Castle. I like the cut of his jib. He one time climbed up onto my head and told me I smell like meat. He's a top notch kinda kid. A little wild but I think the movie scene should be good.

Shanti,

SQ

Trying to get back...

2006-05-23T09:27:00.000-07:00

I need to get back into doing this. Its easy. Its simple. Its quick. I'm lazy, oh well. Life is all about transitions right now. I'm waiting for the next phase of my life to begin. Most of my preparation is waiting though. Waiting for my interview to come. True there is some preparation I could do, but really its just being ready for anything they could throw at me. I could be writing a sermon. I hate writing them too early though. They just seem to not connect as well. Really the preparation I'm doing is reading the Book of Concord and cleaning my car. Two very useful things in general. A clean car is just nice to have so that if someone is riding with you it doesn't smell like ass, and reading the Book of Concord is useful because as far as books go, second only to the Big Dog itself. If you can only pick it up for a moment, just read Article IV. I know it always makes my day better. In fact I'm going to do that.

Its been too long...

2006-04-01T08:04:00.000-08:00

I really hate the internet. I had just written a really great post when things decided to lock up on me. Now as the lazy fat man I am I don't want to write it again. I am also ghetto pissed so that might add to it. Oh well I may say more on what I did say later. I'm back I think. I have missed this. I think I need to do this more.

Inaction

2004-09-30T10:29:00.000-07:00

Life tends to be good. What is there to complain about? For me I get frustrated by inaction. I'm not a workaholic, but I like to pull my weight. I'm a peron who wants to do my part no more and no less. Unfortunately this is a world packed with busy bodies and slackers. I know people who always have to be doing something even taking over other peoples work. They get in their business and it just causes more trouble. While there are some that do nothing and never try. Me I'm in a place where there isn't really things for me to do, bu there are things that need to get done. Ah yes not using resources to their fullest. This goes againt the kingdom. In the kingdom, all partake and all are equal. I think we need to go back to thinking about the kingdom in our daily lives. Maybe that will lead to peace.

Shanti, viva la resistance

Love

2004-09-28T18:00:00.000-07:00

You know love is a crazy thing. I was having a slow day at work, which happens, so I decided to spend some time in thought. I though about my girlfriend and how I really missed her. I was just sitting in my office and I wanted here to walk in so I could talk to her and just be with her. Why, well because I love her. Which is scary. To love someone what does that mean? Maybe it come don to be true and honest. I want to be with her so I can be who I am, honestly who I am. No need to hide or be fake. To be real, but that is scary because to be honest means to be vulnerable. Its even better because she can be herself too. I can see her laugh and be sad and maybe do work and see her as she is. But that is a risk too. She may overwhelm me with who she is. If its both sides of the coin, is one right and one wrong or are they a necessary balance. In my heart I believe that the positive is the truth, and that the negative thing I fear is not being me, or not being the subject, putting the other first. Maybe even letting go of me and going for we. Scary...

That pushed my mind to the cross. The cross... is it God being fully God and we not accepting it and trying to be subjects. But God still lives and beckons us to be who we are. Can we? The cross is God being God and us being us and love still living on.

Shanti, and stick it to the man

Lazy Days

2004-09-25T16:50:00.000-07:00

Its been pretty lazy day. True I spent all morning at church getting set for worship, but that wasn't too bad. The rest of the day I have been rotting my mind on video games. I am big on working and on not having more than you need, but I think video games are the exception. They are like books they work the muscles of the brain. Problem solving, learning how to make money all the good stuff. But not too many or else you start dressing like the characters, and man ya can't do that. Aside from their price and the simple life argument, I think there is nothing bad about video games. I think institutions such as the church need to pay more attention to them and just like the movies, advise people on their playing pleasures. If people give me trouble about playing them too much I just say I'm doing research, because some day I will write a book on the theology of video games. Let me know if you want a copy. Well I need to go back to looking at wedding rings, and then maybe relax some more.

Shanti, and take er easy

Lazarus

2004-09-21T19:50:00.000-07:00

So I'm trying to write a sermon, and I have been carrying around this text with me so far this week. A rich man dies and a poor man named Lazarus. Lazarus is saved. The rich man is not. Its a parable that most people hear and think yup being rich is bad. There has to be more to it though. For in death the rich man asks for water, but Lazarus cannot bring it to him. It is forbidden. No can do, so the rich man begs to have Lazarus rise from the dead to warn his family. If a dead man explains the penalty for their sin then they will repent. The response of Abraham is the real point of this story. If they aren't convinced by the law to repent then the good news won't. We should not be repentant because of the resurrection, but because of the Law. The resurrection is the blessing that we get because of our repentance. The Law is what drives us to it. Is it really repentance if we want the gift. We are not sorry for our acts, we are not guilty or willing to confess. We are innocent in our own mind and will be like the rich man. Look around at the wealth of our country how many are really repentant of their sins of greed. Nope we go to church to gain the prize. But we can never earn it, it is only given to those who do not deserve it. So how are we saved? By the grace of Christ. The blessed law I there to slay us so that we cannot seek the prize and thus we can receive it by grace. We too need need to be turned from wealth and from the destruction of the innocents. Look at Iraq. Will we be Lazarus or the rich man. Read the prophets and know we are the ones who deny justice for money and oppress the poor.

Shanti, and power to the poor

Freedom

2004-09-09T13:20:00.000-07:00

Wow so its Thursday and I didn't think it was my day off but it is. Good deal. So it is gonna be a day of reading and doing laundry. We all have those days where we need to get a menial task done so you just have to do it. Luckily there are books. So I did some reading in Hall's Cross in Our Context and as I was reading about God and power I had some realizations. First some background. So Hall raises the point that many people view God's most important attribute as power. God is powerful and can do anything. This makes people feel safe because there is someone in control. This causes some problems especially in light of evil in the world. Logically God causes evil or allows it to happen. There is more to this but it might get far a field.

On the other hand Hall argues that a better understanding is that God is a suffering God. That god enters into our suffering to bring life. (Read some theology of the cross to better understand these points) In this discussion and all discussions along these lines I think a major question must be addressed. That is the freedom of God. Often our theology and discussions look at God not as a living being but a set of rules or postulates that need to be balanced and messed with to understand how God works. We must discover the rules that govern God's behavior in order to relate to God. But is that outlook really fair and realistic. If our understanding of the Trinity points to a God of relationship, we must understand God as fundamentally free. Only freedom begets a relationship, hence our own freedom. Also when we try o define God apart from freedom that puts our theories above God. We deny the reality of God. I believe that the concept of deus absconditus may also shed light on this. God is often hidden from us and we only see God's actions in the world and we hold these actions up as who God is, but we know God is hidden. Maybe the hiddenness of God is where God's freedom is? I don't know but I know that God is free and hopefully we do not turn our thoughts of who God should be into idols and that we have faith in the living God who is not bound by our perceptions.

Shanti, and freedom form oppression.

The Problem With Religious People

2004-09-07T16:24:00.000-07:00

I was talking with some people today and in the course of the conversation I was struck by how most people are confused about religion. This confusion I believe stems from either people feeding them false information (fundamentalists), or they are greedy and destructive (Bush, Graham...). That is getting far a field though, what the problem is that people want to have control. I believe specifically over other people. When this happens the faith steps away from God and should no longer be a religion. Yes I would argue that all forms of fundamentalism are not religion but really at the core religious rape. The only thing that the members desire is power over others. For example the concept of winning souls for Jesus makes the individual winning souls the mediator of salvation. It is by their prayers or their speaking that another gains salvation. It in essence raises one person to divinity and then enslaves the other. It is almost never about the other person at all. It is about that person doing something, a powerful thing in order to make someone better. The other becomes an object, not a subject unto themselves. That explains the excessive altar calls. the preacher yet again needs to have authority to mediate salvation and not trust that the other can be saved without them. This is sad. Especially because for Christianity this is how all Christians are portrayed and these people aren't Christians. As much as they quote the Bible I don't think they have actually read it.

The alternative is justification by faith. Ah thank God I'm Lutheran. Luckily the good news is that Christ mediates salvation and that this salvation liberates me from sin and death and the oppressive religious ideals of fundamentalists. Yes I do remember simul justus et pecator. But I now can spend time on feeding the poor and helping the sick, yeah that crazy stuff Christ did on his ministry.

Shanti and viva la resistance

Labor Day

2004-09-06T13:03:00.000-07:00

So its Labor day here in the Dallas area. Its been raining and sunny. Its always weird when those happen together. Luckily I have been inside watching a movie and doing laundry. Its good to have a day off. Not that I mind working for the church, but sometimes your schedule can be brutal. For intance yesterday. I was there double checking my sermon at about 6:45 am. I preached at two services and led class. Then I was out the door to get the tire fixed on my truck. That took way too long and cost way too much. Yeah the screw sticking out of it caused too much damage for just a little patch. Since moving to texas 300 in tires is what I've spent. Firestone loves me. WTF! Then I had to wash my alb. Yeah I bet that is a common problem for most people. Sorry I can't go out I gotta wash my alb. Another thing to add to the pist list. I as almost then late to the party I needed to get to. That was relaxing though; eating other people's cooking. MMM wings. That is a sweet thing about being in Texas. They can cook. I mean there are restaurants everywhere and almost every dish I've tried has been nice. If your hungry and want to become fat go to Dallas. The reason everything is bigger in Texas is because they eat so much.

Well Labor day is interesting mainly because the only people that get it off are the ones that really don't labor so hard. For instance every fast food place is open. Yup we need to make sure that the lower classes know that what they do really isn't labor, and that the ceos that steal from the corporate accounts can sit back and take it easy because they deserve it. I know I can't pin it directly on GWB, but you know that slack jawed, thieveing git is behind it somehow. Well I need to go ake it easy for the rest of the world and read some Hall's The Cross in Our Context.

Shanti and tick it to the man.