Gaelic Storm update

If you still wanted to go to the Gaelic Storm show, but didn't want to drive to Charlotte, or you didn't want to pay $12 for a ticket, you're in luck. They're playing this Wednesday (01 Feb 06) at Headliners. Doors at 7, and it's only $10!

My Grandmother

My grandmother passed away last night. She was over 80, and was living with advanced Alzheimer's in a nursing home. Still, her death came rather suddenly, and none of us really got the chance to say a proper goodbye. It's really fallen at an awkward time--my mother closed on her house last night and has spent the past two nights trying to get everything out of the house and ready for the new owners. She hasn't slept either of the past nights. All she's done is packed and cleaned. Now she's preparing to drive to North Carolina. Please pray for my mom. Her name is Jewel, as was her mother's. Please also include my grandfather, Ishmael.
Because of all this, Wendy and I won't be able to make the Gaelic Storm show on Saturday, but I hope the rest of you will still attend. I'd like to think that my friends, at least, will be celebrating even as my family mourns.
I'm not concerned about my grandmother, she loved Jesus like few other people I've known. She's doing very, very well right now.

Gaelic Storm

There were only two good parts in the movie "Titanic"--one was Leonardo DiCaprio's icy corpse sinking into the fathomless deep and the other was the awesome Celtic band playing below the ship for all the drunken Irishmen. That band was Gaelic Storm, and they're playing this Saturday in Charlotte at the Neighborhood Theatre. Wendy and I will be there and we'd love to have you join us. The show starts at 9:00 so we'll be leaving around 7:00. There are directions to the theatre on the website, as well ticketing information. Tickets are $12, by the way. Contact Wendy or I for more information.

Valentine's Day

According to whoever is in charge of calendars and thst sort of thing, Valentine's Day falls on February 14th this year. Additionally, February the 14th falls on a Tuesday, which, as you know, is when the good people of Pendleton's End meet. In order to honor this holiday o' love, we'd like to invite you to the

Screw My Figure, it's Valentine's Day at Fuddruckers dinner.

We'll be meeting at our normal time (7:30) and from there heading over to Fuddruckers for large slabs of meat slathered with condiments. If you can think of a better way to celebrate this holiday, you're invited to offer it, but let me say that Michael, Wendy and I all thought of Waffle House first, but we didn't think we'd all fit--certainly not at one table.

See you there!

Matthew 4- The Temptation of Jesus

Tonight at house church we'll be discussing Matthew 4, which includes the temptation of Jesus in the desert and the beginning of Jesus' public ministry, including the calling of the first disciples. It would probably greatly benefit me as well as the group if I actually owned a Bible commentary, but I don't, so here are some thoughts that I had on this passage.

To begin, the devil comes after Jesus when he's profoundly physically weakened. The devil is evil, but he's also clever. Human beings do tend to be weak spiritually when we're physically weakened. This idea relates back to the last post about sleep; it is harder to obey God (particularly those pesky commands about love) when we're sleep-deprived. The devil knows it and is prepared to exploit that fact. It's also worth noting that the devil begins by offering to fulfill what must be, by this point, one of Jesus' most profound desires--the desire for food. This is only one aspect of the first temptation, but I don't think it's insignificant.

The second thing that occurs to be is the structure of the devil's temptation.

• He begins by tempting Jesus to test his own identity, "If you are the Son of God..."
• He next tempts Jesus to test God's identity. Specifically, this temptation asks Jesus to both test his identity as God's Son, and also God's faithfulness to do what he has said.
• Finally, he tempts Jesus to weigh both his identity and God's identity against Satan's identity. Satan promises that which is not his to give (all the kingdoms of the world), in exchange for that (misplaced worship) which would cost Jesus the very world that he is to inherit. I think it's exactly that sort of twisted boldness that makes Satan so interesting to writers.

The twisted rhetoric of the devil's temptation then contrasts starkly with Christ's replies to him. Scripture--that's it. Jesus does not reason with the devil, he just quotes his Father.

The conclusion to this passage is angels coming to minister to Jesus. When I think of this scene, I tend to think of Frodo waking up in Rivendale after being stabbed by the ringwraith. It's terribly geeky, but I think Tolkien brings home the sense of indescribable comfort, care and warmth that we will only know in the world to come beautifully. Attended by angels--compare that with what the devil was offering--formerly-rock-bread.

That's all I have time for right now, so if you want to comment on this, or on the following verses, please feel free.

A beginning and some sleep

Welcome to the Pendleton's End house church blog. Ideally, this should be a place where the members of our house church can share thoughts, ideas, and prayer requests without barraging one another with email via listserv. If you would like to share something with the group mid-week, this is one excellent way to do it.

I'd like to start by offering this interesting article from Books and Culture Magazine. "Sleep Therapy", by Lauren F. Winner.

When folks from my local church gather for an evening meal or adult education class, we usually close with Compline, the nighttime service from the Book of Common Prayer. This service--in which we pray for a peaceful night and a perfect end, repeating the nunc dimittis (originally uttered by Simeon in a somewhat different context, asking God to let his servant depart in peace)--—is helping me to understand sleep as part of faithfulness. For it is sheer hypocrisy to pray with my community for a peaceful night and a perfect end if I know I am going home to put in three or four more hours answering email.
...
It's not just that a countercultural embrace of sleep bears witness to values higher than "the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things." A night of good sleep--a week, or month, or year of good sleep--—also testifies to the basic Christian story of Creation. We are creatures, with bodies that are finite and contingent. For much of Western history, the poets celebrated sleep as a welcome memento mori, a reminder that one day we will die: hence Keats's ode to the "sweet embalmer" sleep, and Donne's observation, "Natural men have conceived a twofold use of sleep; that it is a refreshing of the body in this life; that it is a preparing of the soul for the next." Is it any surprise that in a society where we try to deny our mortality in countless ways, we also deny our need to sleep?

[Edited 2006.11.15 to repair the dead link to article]