The Hairiness of Sin.

"Original sin is in us, like the beard--we are shaved today and look clean, and have a smooth chin; tomorrow our beard has grown again, nor does it cease growing while we remain on earth. In like manner original sin cannot be extirpated from us as long as we exist. Nevertheless, we are bound to resist it to our utmost strength, and to cut it down unceasingly."

- Martin Luther (1483-1546) 

CQOD

The life unbalanced.

I watched Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance, for the first time in almost 29 years last night (second time overall). This is a 1982 film directed by Godfrey Reggio with music composed by Philip Glass (his best work, IMHO) and cinematography by Ron Fricke. Still powerful-good stuff. Highly recommended. But... perhaps Reggio (and certainly most reviewers) missed the point of his own complaint.

While the focus is on man's quest for technology and its abuses and misuses, mankind gets let off the hook a bit. Reggio was a novitiate for over a decade at a Roman Catholic monastery in northern New Mexico for over a decade prior to making this movie.  It shows in the film's almost Benedictine rhythms of life. And yet, what the film doesn't show is where life is truly unbalanced. Sin against God. Sin is perhaps left out of the film's equation (except sin against Mother Earth), while at the same time being that equation, because sin ultimately comes back on each of us in a way that damning impersonal technology never does.

This is a powerful film about sin, about rebellion against the Creator. But perhaps it focuses on the symptoms, not the disease. Perhaps that is an area we don't want to look into.

Nothing more.

"Our faith begins at the point where atheists suppose it must be at an end. Our faith begins with the bleakness and power which is one night of the cross, abandonment, temptation and doubt about everything that exists! Our faith must be born where it is abandoned by all tangible reality; it must be born of nothingness, taste this nothingness and be given it to taste in a way that no philosophy of nihilism can imagine."

-- Hans Joachim Iwand

Société d'art

A Vowel Movement

Name: We R Mutts

Alternate Names: Mutts R Us, We B Mutts, B. A. Mutt

Action: On July 28 of each year, members of the society will deliver and/or deposit (personally, via courier, or in the dark of night) a ceramic urinal to an exhibiting-collecting art museum/institution, preferably in their town of residence, or beyond, in total anonymity. The museum/institution shall be of their own choosing. The delivered ceramic urinal must be clean, and shall in no way be altered or personalized, although a delivery ticket may be attached.

Purpose: To commemorate the birth of Marcel Duchamp.

Disclaimer: No responsibility is implied or to be assumed.

As found on the internet, and reproduced here. 


For reference only:

The barn swallows have returned to Campverano!

Last year was the first one in our new home, alternately described (depending upon my mood) as Casa Verano, Fort Summer, or St. Helena on the Prairie.  Today I add a new name: Campverano, referencing my surname and California's Mission San Juan de Capistrano, of returning swallow fame.

As our first winter here in Hays County drew to a close in 2011, our house became home to a colony of Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica). These wonderful, chatty birds have remarkable aerial-acrobatic skills (90º turns at high speed... inside the front porch!), and a voracious appetite for mosquitoes (perhaps 10X the appetite of the more popular Purple Martins).

Our colony began its migration back to South America at the height of the drought (a little early, according to what I've read). Migratory patterns would have them return in early February (which is when they arrived last year), but there was no sign of them in February or early March. I have worried they might not return as a result of that near-historic drought. In vain, I have looked every day for their return.

I spotted two today, swirling around the eaves my house. The swallows have returned to San Miguel de Campverano!

"Murder," she says.

Travlin' home.

So long.  It was great while it lasted, and it will be missed. 

Repent!

There's no escape.

Death notice

"Beware of refusing to go to the funeral of your own independence."

-- Oswald Chambers

The Tomb of the Unknown God

 

I went to hear Sequentia, one of the world's premiere Early Music ensembles (well, duo for this performance), perform in Houston last Sunday. The program was of musical fragments of German, Old English, and Nordic 9th-11th Century End of Time texts. The setting was the Rothko Chapel in the Menil compound area.

The Executive Director of the Rothko Chapel came out before the performance and briefly discussed the meaning and purpose of the Rothko Chapel (with its giant black and dark grey canvasses). She described it as "sacred space designed for spiritual contemplation," and as part of Mark Rothko's vision and intent. It has holy books from all the World's major (and not so major) religions, suitable for the quiet contemplation/worship of the god(s) of one's own choice (or of Mark Rothko). 

Rothko himself saw the chapel to be a Roman Catholic institution, based upon an Eastern Orthodox chapel. His monochrome paintings were meant to be references to the crucifixion of Christ. Dominique de Menil had other, more ecumenical, thoughts.

Mark Rothko committed suicide before the chapel was completed.

The Universe as a game of chance.

Imagine the universe's creation as a game of chance, like craps. Or like Russian Roulette perhaps. 

Spin.

Click. Click. Click. 

(Really, imagine 480,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 clicks.)

 

Click. BANG!

A whale of a story, but that's not the point.

Jakob Steinhardt

There are times I really just want to leave people to their own devices. Wash my hands of them. Shake the dust off my feet and turn.

But it's not an option open to me. Therefore I must continue to say to them (and to myself), "Repent! The Kingdom of God is near!"

Jonah 3:1-10

Common English Bible (CEB)

Nineveh hears God’s word

 The LORD’s word came to Jonah a second time: “Get up and go to Nineveh, that great city, and declare against it the proclamation that I am commanding you.” And Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD’s word. (Now Nineveh was indeed an enormous city, a three days’ walk across.) 

 Jonah started into the city, walking one day, and he cried out, “Just forty days more and Nineveh will be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and put on mourning clothes, from the greatest of them to the least significant.

 When word of it reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, stripped himself of his robe, covered himself with mourning clothes, and sat in ashes. Then he announced, “In Nineveh, by decree of the king and his officials: Neither human nor animal, cattle nor flock, will taste anything! No grazing and no drinking water! Let humans and animals alike put on mourning clothes, and let them call upon God forcefully! And let all persons stop their evil behavior and the violence that’s under their control!” He thought, Who knows? God may see this and turn from his wrath, so that we might not perish.

 God saw what they were doing—that they had ceased their evil behavior. So God stopped planning to destroy them, and he didn’t do it.

Coincidental messaging service

Edward John Poynter, Israel in Egypt, 1867

My local classical radio station has been promoting the Texas Choral Consort's upcoming performance of George Frideric Handel's "Israel in Egypt" by breathlessly repeating lines from the oratorio regarding the Biblical plagues visited upon Egypt in the Old Testament book of Exodus. Excerpts from a recorded performance were played last night on the Classically Austin program as a way of promoting the concert. I have to admit to not ever having heard this oratorio before, and I was struck by the passages.

The Morning Prayer readings I use featured the first half Psalm 105 today (1-22). But I have been using the Evening Prayer readings since Advent, because the Psalmody is different, consisting either of different psalms than the morning readings, or of the second half of longer ones. Today's example was Psalm 105:1-22 for Morning Prayer, and Psalm 105:23-45 for Evening Prayer.

Now, in your mind's ear, hear the pleasant sounds you equate with Handel's more popular oratorio "Messiah", but insert these words from the latter half of Psalm 105 instead.

Israel also came into Egypt; and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.

And he increased his people greatly; and made them stronger than their enemies.
He turned their heart to hate his people, to deal subtilly with his servants.
He sent Moses his servant; and Aaron whom he had chosen.
They shewed his signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.
He sent darkness, and made it dark; and they rebelled not against his word.
He turned their waters into blood, and slew their fish.
Their land brought forth frogs in abundance, in the chambers of their kings.
He spake, and there came divers sorts of flies, and lice in all their coasts.
He gave them hail for rain, and flaming fire in their land.
He smote their vines also and their fig trees; and brake the trees of their coasts.
He spake, and the locusts came, and caterpillers, and that without number,
And did eat up all the herbs in their land, and devoured the fruit of their ground.
He smote also all the firstborn in their land, the chief of all their strength.
He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes.
Egypt was glad when they departed: for the fear of them fell upon them.
He spread a cloud for a covering; and fire to give light in the night.
The people asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.
He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out; they ran in the dry places like a river.
For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham his servant.
And he brought forth his people with joy, and his chosen with gladness:
And gave them the lands of the heathen: and they inherited the labour of the people;
That they might observe his statutes, and keep his laws. Praise ye the LORD.

 

Praise ye the Lord indeed, and wonder at the synchronicity of it all.

Mainlining evangelism.

An influx of colorless vinyl

Darkness

"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell."

- C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

Getting a Sense of Perspective

If Monsanto used a food additive that caused 200,000 miscarriages a year in the USA, would people be upset enough to boycott their products?

If the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill caused 210,000 women along the gulf coast to miscarry last year, would that be a shocking scandal worthy of a boycott?

If Planned Parenthood provided abortion services that destroyed 220,000 fetuses in 2011... would that be a good reason to not send them any money?

---


As a culture, we now regard the beginnings of human life in such a way that might cause Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot to blush.  With dark, cruel certainty, we destroy life.

As much as anyone can be, I am a survivor of abortion, in that my mother's obstetrician told her I was a tumor in her uterus and should be removed immediately. He told her she was mistaken about being pregnant, and that putting off the surgery would endanger her life. She was convinced she was pregnant.  

She was right, he was wrong.

Saint Helena on the Prairie

Woke up here one year ago today. Saint Helena on the Prairie.

"There were...plots to rescue Napoleon from captivity including one from Texas, where exiled soldiers from the Grande Armée wanted a resurrection of the Napoleonic Empire in America."

"The following video has been approved by Karl Barth."

Darwinian Reductionism is nothing new

 

Isaiah 44:9-20

The Message (MSG)

Lover of Emptiness

 ^9-11All those who make no-god idols don't amount to a thing, and what they work so hard at making is nothing. Their little puppet-gods see nothing and know nothing—they're total embarrassments! Who would bother making gods that can't do anything, that can't "god"? Watch all the no-god worshipers hide their faces in shame. Watch the no-god makers slink off humiliated when their idols fail them. Get them out here in the open. Make them face God-reality.  ¹²The blacksmith makes his no-god, works it over in his forge, hammering it on his anvil—such hard work! He works away, fatigued with hunger and thirst.
 ^13-17The woodworker draws up plans for his no-god, traces it on a block of wood. He shapes it with chisels and planes into human shape—a beautiful woman, a handsome man, ready to be placed in a chapel. He first cuts down a cedar, or maybe picks out a pine or oak, and lets it grow strong in the forest, nourished by the rain. Then it can serve a double purpose: Part he uses as firewood for keeping warm and baking bread; from the other part he makes a god that he worships—carves it into a god shape and prays before it. With half he makes a fire to warm himself and barbecue his supper. He eats his fill and sits back satisfied with his stomach full and his feet warmed by the fire: "Ah, this is the life." And he still has half left for a god, made to his personal design—a handy, convenient no-god to worship whenever so inclined. Whenever the need strikes him he prays to it, "Save me. You're my god."
 ^18-19Pretty stupid, wouldn't you say? Don't they have eyes in their heads? Are their brains working at all? Doesn't it occur to them to say, "Half of this tree I used for firewood: I baked bread, roasted meat, and enjoyed a good meal. And now I've used the rest to make an abominable no-god. Here I am praying to a stick of wood!"
 ²⁰This lover of emptiness, of nothing, is so out of touch with reality, so far gone, that he can't even look at what he's doing, can't even look at the no-god stick of wood in his hand and say, "This is crazy."

Photo: Popular Science magazine (issue Jan, 1964). It depicts two technicians preparing mechanically animated caveman figure for the exhibition at the 1964/1965 New York World’s Fair.

Isaiah 44:9-20

New International Version (NIV)

 ⁹ All who make idols are nothing,
   and the things they treasure are worthless.
Those who would speak up for them are blind;
   they are ignorant, to their own shame.
¹⁰ Who shapes a god and casts an idol,
   which can profit nothing?
¹¹ People who do that will be put to shame;
   such craftsmen are only human beings.
Let them all come together and take their stand;
   they will be brought down to terror and shame.
 ¹² The blacksmith takes a tool
   and works with it in the coals;
he shapes an idol with hammers,
   he forges it with the might of his arm.
He gets hungry and loses his strength;
   he drinks no water and grows faint.
¹³ The carpenter measures with a line
   and makes an outline with a marker;
he roughs it out with chisels
   and marks it with compasses.
He shapes it in human form,
   human form in all its glory,
   that it may dwell in a shrine.
¹⁴ He cut down cedars,
   or perhaps took a cypress or oak.
He let it grow among the trees of the forest,
   or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow.
¹⁵ It is used as fuel for burning;
   some of it he takes and warms himself,
   he kindles a fire and bakes bread.
But he also fashions a god and worships it;
   he makes an idol and bows down to it.
¹⁶ Half of the wood he burns in the fire;
   over it he prepares his meal,
   he roasts his meat and eats his fill.
He also warms himself and says,
   “Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.”
¹⁷ From the rest he makes a god, his idol;
   he bows down to it and worships.
He prays to it and says,
   “Save me! You are my god!”
¹⁸ They know nothing, they understand nothing;
   their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see,
   and their minds closed so they cannot understand.
¹⁹ No one stops to think,
   no one has the knowledge or understanding to say,
“Half of it I used for fuel;
   I even baked bread over its coals,
   I roasted meat and I ate.
Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left?
   Shall I bow down to a block of wood?”
²⁰ Such a person feeds on ashes; a deluded heart misleads him;
   he cannot save himself, or say,
   “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”