[CAUMC] Hermeneutics [2007-07-12]

I was SO EXCITED that the topic was "Hermeneutics: approach/method of interpretation/lens." And not just because it was, as Trelawney had said in her e-mail, "leaving off Wesley/poverty for now."

Plus, we had been talking about HP, and I was saying that I loved reading stuff about the OotP movie and how stuff that was (de-)emphasized in it might be indicators as to what will and will not be important in Book 7 since JKR has such close creative control.

The handout was a collection of excerpts, all of which actually had source listings, whee! I excerpt them further and comment behind the cut. ( Read more... )

[CAUMC] Criminal Justice - An Overview [2007-07-19]

excerpt from an e-mail from CAUMC!Eric:

Thursday July 19
Back here in summery Somerville, small group continues! I'm hoping to continue our theme of justice with a 3 part series examining criminal justice. An overview will begin this Thursday, followed by a video next week, and format TBD the following week.

( Read more... )

[CHPC] Amos, brunch, etc. [2007-07-22]

( church service, with our ministry intern preaching on Amos )

( impromptu brunch with HDS folks, including much interesting conversation )

[CWM] Eighth Sunday After Pentecost [2007-07-22]

Hi, Ari, I totally thought of you when I saw the heading in the bulletin.

( in which Tiffany preaches on the Mary-and-Martha passage, using pop culture references; and I lay-read again )

Tiffany said she's thinking about doing a 4-week book study on literature talking about God -- we wouldn't read whole books, just passages. She said she'd considered the Fannie Flagg passage she read in her sermon, but she wants passages that challenge people. She's planning on including the "Massa on the eye" passage from The Color Purple and a passage from Bless Me, Ultima.

She asked me to think about other readings we could use -- said she knew if anyone in the congregation would, it would be me. I said I didn't know if I had earned that reputation but that I was pleased with it.

I thought of Julian's Showings but didn't mention it at the time. Anyone have any suggestions?

"Oh, Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true."

I was wandering blogrolls yesterday, and I really liked this post, which is worth reading in full but I'll post an excerpt:

In Luke 10, Jesus sends out 70 disciples into the surrounding community. I have been thinking about this story a lot, and will be preaching on it tonight. Here's where I am right now:

I think we can learn a few things about being disciples today from these 70 disciples of long ago.

First - their message wasn't "Jesus died for you," because Jesus hadn't died yet. There message was "Peace be with you" and "God is here." Maybe we shouldn't minimize the Gospel to "Jesus died for you so now what are you going to do for him" as much as just offer people peace and point out that God is all around us.

---

Later, I read this post (and I was reading top-down, so I had already read this one about stones [Joshua 4:1-7]).

It opens:

It took me four years to get through seminary. I've been here at Hope four years, and I've learned more here than I learned in my time in school.

For instance, I know:
that the live load capacity of the flat part of the Hope roof was designed for 50 pounds/square/foot, with a dead weight allowance of 10 psf.

My eyes starting prickling around the time I got to:

I know which hospital most of you go to.

but then I got to:

I know how to design worship for Jews, Christians, Muslims, Quakers, Lutherans, and the rest of us, and how to plan an event for liberal and conservative Christians together.

and was like, "Yeah, okay, whatever" (even though the actual text of that I'm like, Yes! Really?). But I kept reading, and:

I have learned that when you take a roof that has a live load capacity of 50 psf and a dead weight limit of 10 psf but the insulation is wet, adding 5 psf, and when the previous roof was installed the former roof wasn't removed so the dead weight the roof is carrying is actually 24 psf, and it is March and you have 40 psf of wet snow on the roof, you have a problem –
and when you have just cut the budget by 20%, and taken out a $100,000 mortgage for the new elevator, and the roofer tells you it will cost $200,000 to fix the wet, rotting and overloaded roof, and the Fire Marshall tells you to put in an addressable alarm system or else and that system costs $26,000 –
I know that if the people have hope, they will find a way through it, and when they are finding that way through and things are going fine sometimes a check will fall out of an envelope from someone who hasn't been here in 40 years that will make it all that much easier.

and somewhere in there I started crying and actually had to move away from the page for a bit 'cause I was at work.

[Tuesday, July 24, 2007]

So, apparently San Francisco power outages were repsonsible for LJ's downtime last night.

I learned that there is a GJ community the_lj_refuge, which keeps updated with LJ downtime status reports. And where_is_lj on IJ.


Good things about yesterday:
* I had breakfast.
* burrito for lunch!
* The AfterEllen Hot 100. (I felt so gay, 'cause I was way more into the AfterEllen 100 than the AfterElton 100. Partly I think I just recognized a lot more of the women. Plus a lot of the shots were just more interesting )
* I went to pilates class. I think I worked harder than I did last time.
* We have three trash barrels again.
* Someone other than me bought toilet paper for our apartment.
* I unearthed my new box of checks.
* I went to bed at like 10pm.


[Okay, I'm done spamming your flist for the time being.]