Amazon brought me some goodies today, including Rob Bell‘s newest book, Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections between Sexuality and Spirituality. Since starting this blog almost a year ago, nothing has generated more links traffic here (besides my participation on the PCUSA Blog and BlogRing) than my posts on Bell’s Nooma series. I’m excited to read Sex God, having just finished Bell’s very good Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith.

Also part of this Amazon shipment: Mark Labberton’s The Dangerous Act of Worship: Living God’s Call to Justice (IVP), Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches: Five Perspectives (ed. Robert Webber, with contributions by Karen Ward, Doug Pagitt, Dan Kimball, John Burke, and Mark Driscoll) (Zondervan), Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch’s The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church (Harper), Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat’s Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire (IVP) and another Sacra Pagina commentary, this one Frank Matera’s Galatians.

Lots of good stuff to read soon…

A good sabbath day today, comparatively. I’ve been grabbing bits and pieces of many books when I can, mainly at night when my lovely wife is asleep and I have a bit of time to read. That’s life while being in the ministry and sharing the joys and responsibilities of rearing infants. So its mainly my lightwedge and whichever book of the moment I grab from my bedside table: at the moment Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis, NT Wright’s Simply Christian, Peter Rollins’ How (Not) To Speak of God, Jack Haberer’s God Views, and a re-read of Steve Taylor’s The Out of Bounds Church? Its a joy to read these, but hard to process them well in the short bits I get to chew on here and there.

Friday’s the day off, but I’ve not been good at taking much of it as a day off lately. There’s typically something that has to get done, and it takes up good hunks of my Friday. Even today that’s somewhat the case (don’t get me started on my perpetually infirm but beloved shih-tzu), but less than normal. So today, instead of figuring out how to file tax forms for our household employee (the girls’ daycare provider) like last Friday or figuring out an emergency fix for the busted showerhead the Friday before, I spent a good chunk of the day working on thousands of pictures of the girls I’ve been meaning to process-upload-and-share with family. And they’re so fun! And now I’m actually reading, getting more than those 40 sleepy minutes. I’m almost finished with Bell’s Velvet Elvis.

To be fair, it probably wasn’t smart of me to decide to use the wireless connection at the coffee shop to upload pictures to shutterfly. It says I have hours to go, but I’m sitting here enjoying my eclectic favs playlist and sipping joe while digesting Bell. There’s not a lot that I find to be profound in Bell’s book, but its refreshing to read anew much of what I have seen in his Nooma video series and that is fairly close to many theological convictions that I share. Bell writes in short bits, which is fine; I’m thinking that there are some people in my church who really would get a lot out of this book. I don’t really get the charge leveled at him in previous comments that Bell “has no theology” and is mired in relativism. Well, I get it; I just don’t concur. His work is deeply biblical, and there are clear theological convictions there. People might not agree with them, but they’re there.

Anyway, INXS‘ New Sensation just came on my playlist, and I’m rockin as silently as I can over here. I wonder if people are looking at me, but that’s ok. I’m enjoying my time off…

Live baby live
Now that the day is over
I got a new sensation
In perfect moments
Impossible to refuse
Sleep baby sleep
Now that the night is over
And the sun comes like a god
Into our room
All perfect light and promises

Gotta hold on you
A new sensation
A new sensation
Right now
Gonna take you over
A new sensation
A new sensation

Dream baby dream
Of all thats come and going
And you will find out
In the end
There really is
There really is no difference

Cry baby cry
When you’ve got to get it out
Ill be your shoulder
You can tell me all
Don’t keep it in ya
Well thats the reason why I’m here

Are you ready for a new sensation
A new sensation
Right now
Gonna take you on a new sensation
A new sensation

Hate baby hate
When theres nothing left for you
You’re only human
What can you do
It’ll soon be over
Don’t let your pain take over you

Love baby love
Its written all over your face
Theres nothing better we could do
Than live forever
Well thats all we’ve got to do

Hey now I’m gonna take a new sensation
A new sensation

For anyone interested, the next song on the playlist shuffle was the Gipsy Kings‘ Djobi Djoba.

I’ve been hard to find lately, I know. The reprieve from the workload that I projected in my last post didn’t really come to be…yet. That’s ok, because life is good: my kids are wonderful and healthy and happy; my wife is incredible; my congregation is strong. So all in all, while I’d like to have more time to get back to regular blogging, I’m not stressed by it. Things are good.

Hopefully soon I’ll be back in the thick of things.

In the meantime, I have a new camera to play with. Well, not a Kodachrome, but I couldn’t help think of Paul Simon as I was picking up my new Nikon D40:

Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the worlds
a sunny day, oh yeah

I got a nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama dont take my kodachrome away

Instead of photoshop (thanks to the recs to look at paint shop pro), I’ve decided to spend what remains of my meager expense budget on some liturgical items that I need: mainly a chalice/paten/pyx/pitcher set and a new stole.

So, while I had the opportunity, yesterday I visited the studios of Gospel Colors and picked up a new white stole. I needed one, since my other white stole isn’t quite appropriate for all the occasions for which I’d wear white.

I’ll try to get a picture of the actual stole I got, but I went in thinking I’d get this one. The one I ended up with is more quilted, and its more kenetic (which is in tune with my theology of what God is doing at Christmas and Easter, informed as it is by Moltmann‘s theology of God’s novum decisively moving the world towards the Kingdom of God). But I do like this one a lot, too…

I’ll wear my new one for Christmas. Its also appropriate for Easter, or funerals, or weddings.

I think a lot of Gospel Colors’ work is beautiful. Check out their website. The stole I bought is an interesting complement to my other stoles, which include items from Peru, Guatemala, Bosnia-Herzegovina, one made as an ordination gift by a pastor I interned with, and one bought from a more formal outfit (Slabbinck). Pretty cool having a more-or-less “local” complement to that global list….

I’m a fountain pen snob. Snob might be too strong a word: I write with other, more pedestrian instruments much of the time without breaking out into a sweat. But I love my fountain pens. I have too many of them. I use the ink from the bottle (this ink, typically). It gets on my hands sometimes. I love it.

Anyway, I also actually write letters, by hand (even with my poor handwriting). Sure, I do a lot of email, but I still default to (fountain)pen and paper for many things. I enjoy it.

Maggi Dawn has a delightful Garrison Keillor quote up today on her blog:

The first step in writing letters is to get over the guilt of not writing. You don’t “owe” anybody a letter. Letters are a gift.

Sure, we don’t owe anyone a letter. You can call, email, text, whatever. Or not communicate. But writing a letter is a special thing. Part of that gift is the time and thought put into writing it, thinking about it, engaging it. Email is fast-food communication; the letter, more ideally an elegant meal.  Something for me to ponder…

…As I thought about it on the drive home, I can think of a few people I know and love whom I’ve not seen or spoken to in a while. A letter to them might be a nice Christmas gift.

I had the good fortune of getting to know a colleague in Presbytery yesterday over puff pastries (mine was crab, his was chicken) and coffee. Sure, it was during an ice storm and I’m lucky I didn’t break my neck going down two flights of ice-covered, wooden stairs (particularly since my center of gravity was slightly off due to the aforementioned puff pastry). But had I fallen, it would have still been worth it.

I’m grateful for the chance to share ministry with people I am coming to respect, pastors I can learn from, colleagues who become friends, peers, mentors, together. This is a very good thing.

A quick personal note: I give thanks to God and to all of you for the outpouring of support for us upon the birth of our twin girls. I am fortunate that, even though cyberspace, I am able to feel and know God’s Grace and Love through your posts and private emails. I am humbled and very grateful to each of you. So, thanks!

The concept ‘kairos’ is all about living into God’s time, and not imposing our own onto it. How hard it is to do that in a culture that tries to control, micromanage, every second of Chronos-time!

At Kairos’ household, this concept is being employed, tested, as we’re waiting, waiting, waiting for the arrival of our babes. We thought it could happen way too early (twins often come early). We toured the NICU, got the room ready in the second trimester. Stocked up on premie diapers. All that. But, for us, that was not in the cards.

Then we thought that it likely would come sometime the last two weeks. That would have been average for Twins, and they are ‘full term’ now. So we thought for sure this was it. I cleared my plate of long term projects. Ms. Kairos took vacation time at work. We made sure the bottle warmers worked and that I had read the books I needed to read to know something of what I was supposed to be doing. But, lo and behold, no babes yet.

Now we’re in the home stretch. Tests show that the babies are doing great, with no real medical reason for them to induce (for the next two weeks, ack!).

So we wait. Could happen tonight. Could happen weeks from now. And we release ourselves to God and God’s time. But waiting is hard (particularly for Ms. Kairos, whose body aches and isn’t fully hers any longer and who can’t sleep and can’t empty her bladder and so on). But we are living into the fullness of God’s time. We know that they’ll be here when they are ready. Take your time, Girls. We’ll be waiting for you…

Isaiah 40: 28-31 (NRSV)

²⁸Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.

²⁹He gives power to the faint,
and strengthens the powerless.

³⁰Even youths will faint and be weary,
and the young will fall exhausted;

³¹but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.