Kontakion

Its actually been quite sometime since I finished a personal reading book. Unfortunatly about a month and a half ago I started reading Siddhartha by Herman Hesse in my own personal attempt to broaden my understanding of other religions. While my undergraduate program was excellent for studying christianity (even if it was one sided) looking at other religions for the sake of understanding not conversion wasn't somthing that was valued. I read this particular book and found it extreamly thought provoking. I am still mulling over some of the ideas that were brought forth as well as some of the scenes particularly those that are involved with the river, but for now here are some of the quotes I liked the best. "Writing is good, thinking is better. Cleverness is good, patience is better." "Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it."

Well I've done something tonight that I never thought I would do...I moved some of my books into storage. I couldn't sleep tonight because I was thinking about my family and my future, and as I sat in my office I looked at my crowded bookshelves and saw there were exceptional amount of books that I don't use now or that have no meaning to me. So I bit the bullet and started packing quietly, which is not an easy thing to do at midnight with a baby sleeping near by, not to mention my wife. As I was cleaning my bookshelves I decided I would either only keep books that ment something to me, look good, something I could use, or something I enjoyed reading. It was quite interesting what took shape. The majority of my books were from my undergraduate and I had been leaving them there as a reminder of who I was and where I had come from. The majority of those books were packed away in fact the only books left to remind me of my past are some "Christian Theology" books tha

Well it took a while but my wife and I finally went on a date night and it couldn't come at a better time. This morning I preached a sermon which my wife said was the best I've ever done. We had a set of grandparents up to hear me preach and we got them to watch Olivia for the afternoon so that Katie and I could go see a movie. We had seen advertisments for RENT which Katie and I both want to see but when it came down to it we went and saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Katie loves Harry Potter so the decision became what movie would be better to see on the big screen. The obvious choice was Harry Potter, its just a movie made for the big screen. The next movie we plan to see is The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe if we can, hopefully these date nights become an event we can count on at least once a month. As for the movie it was excellent I recommend it for anyone who has or has not read the books. The graphics were great and the story line as always is highly enjoyable.

Well I am in the middle of planning the first two sunday's in Advent. The theme for Advent this year is "Coming Home" and we are using the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke as the Advent theme text. Because I have the first two sunday's it has fallen upon me to imbue the congregation with a sense of festivity as well as to prepare them for the services that lie ahead. My sermon on the 27th is going to be about how to recognize when it is time to come home. I am focusing on the first several verses of the parable when the son realizes he could live better at home. What I am going to try and bring out is that as a church we can be a family for those that have none. In fact we should be the best example of a family possible. I think that this will go over well with the congregation but it remains to be seen. The 4th of December will be the most difficult service to bring about. The reasons are varied but basically what it boils down to is that this service is going to be

Well any who read may begin to wonder what the change in title and address for my blogg is for. Its quite simple. While sitting in Church History today our Professor talked about the Greek Orthodox church and a style of worship they have called Kontakion. Basically it is a song/sermon/theology as well as other things all wraped up into one. As Shawn Anthony was sitting next to me and pointed out how that would be a good title for my blogg I jumped at the suggestion and made the change. I hope that this change more accuratley discribe me and what I am attempting at this blogg. Not only that but I changed it because it just sounds better:) I hope who ever's reading enjoys.

This past Friday I had a interesting time. Actually it was quite simple, I had a fortunate stroke of luck with my tv. I went to bed and of course my wife was already asleep (she had an extreamly busy week at work) and I turned on the cable and saw that a Paul McCarthy concert in St. Petersburg Russia was being played. Now for those of you who don't know I am a huge Beatles fan, and of course I have some albums that the fab 4 did as individuals. As I was watching the concert I couldn't help but sing along and I found myself thinking, whats wrong with these simple pleasures? My normal diet for music recently has been politically charged stuff or songs with heavy lyrics. It had been a long time since I had just listened to some music just for fun with odd or even funny lyrics. Because of watching that concert I have gone into a Beatles listening frenzy over the last several days and I have listened to every Paul McCarthy CD I have, tommorrow I start on my Beatles list. I al

Well I'll say the wait finally seems to be over. I am beginning to feel good about the direction my life is taking. Currently right now I am apart of the United Church of Christ (UCC). I made the switch to UCC last year after struggling for months over my incompatiblity with the United Methodist church (UM), this all occured as a result of my theological development that started several years before. In the past few weeks I have been confronted by Liberal Christianity's inablity to answer questions, stand united, or to even convey a healthy spirituality for me (I will write more on this at another time.) Apart of that I have been confronted by several students as well as faculty members that are all in agreement that I don't belong in the UCC where I need to go is the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). This struggle has been long and difficult for me because I grew up in a tradition that to go UUA would be like taking the first step inton hell, willingly. But after c

Well I am continuing in my struggle with liberal christianity, no real suprise there right. This past week I had the opportunity to speak with a liberal christian that I highly respect and value as a friend. In the course of our conversation Christology came up. For those of you that don't know Christology is the study of Jesus as God (thats the short of it.) I had grown up with the automatic understanding of Jesus being God, I was a classical trinitarian and loved being it. However as I critically examined that facet of my religious belifes I found that Jesus being divine didn't hold up to close scrutiny. The Roman government didn't kill people for claiming that they were divine, they killed people who threatened the stability of the Empire. Also I began to doubt the "Jesus died for the forgiveness of sins" concept. This is the most closely related peice of doctrine for why Jesus needs to be divine. If Jesus does "save us from our sins" than there are a