Under the Oak

Greenists strike in Washington state (surprise!) only to find out that dirty dishes aren’t on the list of things that people are willing to give up to save the environment. Oops.

So lets grant the absurd notion that mankind has somehow managed to overheat the earth – you know…for the sake of argument. If people aren’t even willing to give up clean dishes for the cause, then isn’t that evidence that mankind is not morally capable of the sacrifice that would be required to cool the earth back to its “normal” temperature? And if we’re not capable then why suffer half the sacrifice and fail? I say let them have phosphate based dish washing detergent! Let the soccer moms buy SUVs! Let the cows fart in peace! If there is no hope anyway, we may as well enjoy these little pleasures for the last thousand or so years of our collective existence, yes?

I wish I could blame my dirty dishes on the Cult of Green.

In our Sunday morning bible study here at West Mobile, we have been studying through a kind of synopsis of the life of Jesus. One of the things that I’ve been trying to emphasize as we go through is the development of the overall narrative. My studies of the gospels up to this point have tended to be episodic – studying a particular “episode” in the story and taking lessons from it independent of the context or looking at the immediate context only. We aren’t even very far in our study and I’ve already noticed things that I’d not paid much attention to in those prior studies.

For instance, I’ve found the theme of rebuke quite interesting. We are told that Jesus rebukes demons (Mark 1:25; Luke 4:35; etc), fevers (Luke 4:39), and the wind (Mark 4:39). On each of these occasions the object of the rebuke obeys. The demons are cast out and made to be silent (Luke 4:41), the fever flees (Luke 4:39), and the wind who he tells to “Be silent! Hush!” promptly stops howling such that the calmness of the sea is “great” (Mark 4:39; Note: Gr. siopa “to silence” perimoso “to muzzle”, note that the Greek word eirene “peace” is not in the original). Contrast that with the rebuke of the people in Mark 10:48 which is completely ignored by the demons. 

The incredible thing is that in the midst of this pattern of Jesus rebuking and the object of that rebuke obeying, his frequent rebuke of the disciples (E.g., Luke 9:55; Mark 4:40-41) seems to have little recognizable effect. On one occasion, Peter – bold Peter – had a mind to rebuke Jesus(!), but instead he receives one of the harshest rebukes found in the gospels (Mark 8:32-33). Ironically, some of the Pharisees, alarmed by the crowds present for the “Triumphal Entry”, call on Jesus to rebuke his disciples (Luke 19:39). He had been! Yet, even his closest disciples didn’t seem to get the message.

This theme of rebukes found in the narrative of Jesus is reminiscent of a theme found in the early chapters of Genesis where Yahweh speaks and everything from plant life to light itself springs into existence in response. This is followed in the narrative by what can only be described as a stunning non-sequitur. Yahweh speaks; Man disobeys.

What an important reminder to see from the full context of Jesus’ story. Yahweh comes and calls us to repentance, submission to a new covenant, and action in his service and we dare weigh the pros and cons of responding? What incredible patience the Lord has with his creation.

Yahweh speaks. . .

A helicopter makes a successful emergency landing in an Iraqi field only to be surrounded by armed Iraqis – the good kind. (via Michael Yon)

They’d been on patrol, saw the helicopter go down and come over to see who’d dropped in. Should’ve seen their faces when they found out one of the pilots was Iraqi. Instant collective confidence boost. Iraqi flags popped up on the vehicles and the troops spread out to secure the area until the cavalry — in the form of one of our mechanics — arrived.

I confess that in the thick of it I had doubts about how Iraq would turn out. Granted, they aren’t out of the woods and I don’t foresee them loving us such that they’ll be applying for statehood anytime soon, but it is nice to see the progress that has been made in that nation all the same.

A shame we never hear about it.

Jan Raath of the London Times  gives an update on the situation in Zimbabwe. I have heard two or three reports on the work in this country, so I was excited when I read this. It sounds like there is reason to hope for continued improvement thanks to the efforts of Morgan Tsvangirai (and no I can’t pronounce that) who is “power sharing” with Mugabe.

His first move was simply to dump Robert Mugabe’s joke currency and allow US dollars and other convertible currencies to circulate freely. Immediately it unjammed a multitude of cogs in the nation’s stricken engine. The infusion of just a little real money has enabled the Harare city council to make a modest start on the worst of the decay left by the shameless Mugabe, his ministers and officials.

In a country where Christians get the food they need only because brethren are trucking it in from surrounding countries, it is good to hear that the financial situation may be improving. You can find the full article here.

Continue to pray for the Christians in Zimbabwe. They have been through a lot of pain and suffering and they aren’t out of the woods yet.

Welcome to my new blog! I’ve been wanting to restart this for a long time, but I’ve had other things higher on the to do list. My hope is that this can be a place where I can both hone my writing skills and ramble on at my ease. For an explanation of why it is called “Under the Oak”, see the About page. I’m not totally sold on the theme design yet, but Wordpress and Wordpress themes are easily switched out.

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