The Gift: Word Shop Newsletter October 2006
When Leslie emailed my daughter-in law about having a baby shower for them at Family Camp, Shannon wrote back in gratitude, but added that presents weren't necessary, "The baby is the gift, you know."
The line struck me with tear-pushing sweetness when I read it, and became an anchor of prayer as the birth drew near. The baby is the gift, you know.
Now aflush with the joy of the child born, I am also thankful for an incarnational religion, one that understands and affirms this singular joy: a religion that is not just ideology, philosophy, or a list of principles for behavior, but rather that begins with this ordinary exultation, the triumph and affirmation of life, the jubilation common to all mankind. The baby is the gift, you know. The baby is the gift.
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Launched into the stream of time, we all too soon find ourselves swimming against the current. Os Guinness looks deeply into our modern view of time in his book Prophetic Untimeliness. He says that by bowing to the idol of relevance, we are held captive to the seductions and pressures of "clock culture." We adapt to the current culture in order to serve it, but can become so assimilated that the church is incapable of speaking prophetically. The solution offered for this drift down the slippery slope is nothing new, but the reader is left with a renewed strength of purpose for some of the basic Christian disciplines.
"At least five times the Faith has to all appearances gone to the dogs. In each of these five cases, it was the dog that died." --G.K. ChestertonGledawyn ordered The Language of God by Francis Collins after watching a TV debate where this pioneering medical geneticist presented his "evidence for belief." I ordered an extra copy, which Dave promptly rented. Gledawyn came in this week to tell me how great the book is. "One of those books which everyone should read." Then Dave brought it back saying that the science was great but the theology somewhat lacking. Hard to be an expert in everything! Is it better to read a scientist write about theology, or a theologian write about science? Those who think real scientists can't believe in God should read this--or those who want to learn some fascinating stuff around genetics.
"Some people change when they see the light, others when they feel the heat."Finding Magic Mountain is a rollicking, romping, joyful, difficult read. The mother of five children, Carol Zapata-Whelan writes about the activity, love and daily crisis of parenthood. What makes the book difficult is the rogue gene called FOP that one of her children has. The gene responds to trauma by calcifying muscle and tissue into bone. Reading along you are unable to escape the fact that Bad-Things-Happen. Yet even in the midst of medical mania, love and joy prevail--the baby is the gift, you know.
--Caroline Schoeder
FOP is a disease that often is horrendously misdiagnosed (a clue is a big toe without a second joint). The book is great for anyone dealing with medical trauma, especially moms, and also good for those of us who freak out at the mere thought of doctors and hospitals. $16. Tisa, who is a great gift herself, has a bunch of copies she's planning to send me, but I told her to wait incase some of you Nevada folk want to buy direct from her.
You can tell a boy chromosome from a girl chromosome is by taking down its genes.Wandering into a floundering independent bookstore in Woodland, I felt honor bound to buy something. I left with The Best American Spiritual Writing 2006 edited by Philip Zaleski. "The spiritual dimension of the American experience continues to be a source of amazement..." So begins Peter Gomes in the introduction, which describes some of the tensions in the American religious scene. We do have an amazing experiment underway here. No state religion on one hand, nor is has the state become anti-religion as in some other countries. It is a hard balance to maintain, a drama played out on many different stages. One of the best in this wide ranging collection of essays is "The Big Tent" written by Peter Boyer. First published in the New Yorker, it traces Billy Graham's emergence through the polarization of fundamentalist and liberal Protestant camps between World War I & II. Obviously the current state of affairs is not new.
"The rat race speeds up, but it's still a race for rats." --Os GuinnissI also enjoyed an essay by Scott Cairns on writing a drama about St. Polycarp. What he says correlates with what we are attempting in our monthly journey through the Gospel of John. He points to the rabbinical disposition toward sacred texts--that they are the beginning of the story rather than the end--a disposition, he says "that on the one hand, witnesses to the generative power; the life and agency of the word, and, on the other hand, effects a level of attention, concentration, and meditation in the reader, so much so that the reader attains a collaborative relationship with those words as meaning is made." Exactly. Co-creative.
FIRST TUESDAY WRITERS Tuesday, November 7 at 7:15
LIFE RULES! Friday, November 3 at 1:30
JOHN JOURNEY Tuesday, November 14 at 12:30
"If you are planning for one year, grow rice. If you are planning for 20 years, grow trees. If you are planning for centuries, grow men."--Chinese proverbHappy All Saints Day.
Blessings,
Alliee +