Cul de Sac

 

 
Now they're reading it in Italy.
 

The shepherd's voice

Who is the shepherd here? It is not the good, faithful, orthodox pastor; Jesus is the shepherd. And there is a fundamental difference between Jesus and all Christian pastors. Jesus is the God-man, God in the flesh; and as such, He is our Savior. The pastor is not the Savior; the pastor points to the Savior. So the point of this text is not good pastors vs. bad pastors; it is that no one can love the sheep like Jesus loves them, because only He owns the sheep. ...

[L]ook at Jesus! ... He lays down His life for sheep who love to wander. There is no selfishness in Him, but love. That is the one who says, “Follow Me; listen to My voice.” He says it not to dominate you or control you, but because He knows what it best for you.

So that is what it means to be a Christian — to hear Christ’s Word and follow Him. You can’t do that on your own; He has put us all into one flock, one Church, and there is where He has promised to be. The Church is found not where things are hippest or smokiest, not where things are biggest or oldest, but where the Word is rightly preached and where that Word is joined to water, bread, and wine as Christ instituted it. The Church is institutional because Jesus instituted preaching and Sacraments; and the human aspects of that institution — meeting and bylaws and hierarchies — must always and only serve those things, the ways in which sheep hear the voice of Christ the Good Shepherd.

So what does the voice of your Good Shepherd say to you? He says,

Repent, and be baptized for the remission of your sins;

Repent, and sin no more.

I do not desire your death, but that you should turn from your wicked way and live.

Rejoice, your King comes to you!

I forgive you all your sins;

On this mountain I will prepare a feast of the choicest cuts of meat and the finest of wines;

I will wipe away every tear from every eye;

I will never leave you nor forsake you;

Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life;

Lazarus, come forth from your grave!

Little girl, I say to you, arise! Young man, I say to you, arise!

Take and eat, this is My body given for you;

Behold, I make all things new!

These are the things your Good Shepherd says to you. Those words are your life. All other words are innocuous but temporary and un-saving; or, they are devilishly deceptive and damning. Do not listen to them. Keep your ears tuned to the voice saying to you continually, “Repent! Follow Me!” and “I forgive you! Do not fear!”

From a recent sermon by Christopher Esget of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Alexandria, Virginia — published on his blog. Read the whole thing.

Cul de Sac!!

Dear Reader (er .. meaning all 3 or 4 of you, equally), Richard Thompson himself was gracious enough to pay this blog a visit last night. I assure you, this is a moment of celestial exaltation for my humble blog.

If you click on his name there in the comments, as I quickly did, you'll find that Richard Thompson indeed has a blog. And it's terrific, not surprisingly. But don't take my word for it!

Incidentally, that blog appears on the 2nd page of Google returns if you search "Richard Thompson" today. When I mentioned him here in September, though, having just searched for what material was out there (as I've done on several occasions over some years), there was no blog to find. His inaugural post is dated later that same month.

It would be unseemly, perhaps, for me to praise Thompson's work in a very impassioned way, here, especially since I'm not the book-&-print-collecting, convention-going comics & illustration fanatic that others out there who appreciate his stuff undoubtedly are. But I've long thought him a superb illustrator. I'm really grateful to have more access, now, to what he's doing.

P.S. See particularly the Beethoven's Birthday posts of last month — 1, 2. Hilarious!

More honesty

Found today that Gregory Baus, congenial controversialist originally from the area of Baltimore where I now live, is back to blogging, after a break of some months. I met Baus through friends at New Hope Presbyterian, the church in Fairfax, Va., I attended for a number of years. His blog was my introduction to the blogging phenomenon, and thereby to a lot of thought-provoking encounter with people — a wide (& gradually still widening) spectrum of personalities and conversations. I'm grateful for it.

His most recent post occasions a brief but interesting exchange, in comments, on questions of treaties and national sovereignty in reading the U.S. Constitution.

From the blogosphere

Respected Lutheran theo-blogger Chris Atwood, prof. of Mongolia history at Indiana U., on Monday posted part 2 of what looks like it'll be a 3-part series on modern views of 'the Joshua event' in Israel tradition, told mainly in the biblical book of that name. The posts are longish by comparison with a lot of usual blog fare, but considering they're coming from an academic habituated to writing about history, they're not so long really. In any case, fascinating history-of-an-idea reading — well worth a look.

From the blogosphere

Sarah Irani, at Nine Tons of Marble, has been posting since roughly spring/early summer, a little sporadically but with continuity, about re-establishing herself in the regular habits of creative enterprise. (Sarah's a sculptor — mainly concerned with large-scale figure in the 'classical' mode.) One of the pleasures of reading her is the opportunity for some insight into being an artist as a problem bound up in the total effort of a life — as something quite different from, in other words, the idea of a profession pursued 'at the office' or 'in the field' and set aside at home on evenings & weekends. Tuesday's posts are especially suggestive, I think, of this totalizing sensibility, the on-running contingencies & conflicts of mind, body, & relationship self-awareness & -adjustment intimately connected with finding oneself operating with a fruitfully artistic mind-'set'.

From the blogosphere

To have daughters.

From the blogosphere

poetry comes from love, not from despair or darkness, this is only self-indulgence....

despair looks at a point, eyes downcast, a view inward. love looks all around and into eternity.

From brief notes posted today by Chris Godfree-Morrell.

From the blogosphere

Calling life a "battle" may sound outlandish, but speak to anyone who has experienced or witnessed any amount of true suffering and they won't be so eager to prescribe tips on how to say "farewell to the blues," because they are dealing with so much more. How ridiculous we North Americans are — I don't want to be stuck in this cesspool of comfortable living forever. It's like eating yourself.

Bit taken from new expressive rumblings/ruminations of the thoughtful Tala Strauss.

(Interesting to think of ending in consuming ourselves as reflecting a sort of perverse societal attainment, & as an image exactly opposite to the church's coming, corporately, at Jesus' call, to 'feed upon' & be nourished by him.)

From the blogosphere

Do go & let full-auto-witted Lutheran (ex-)seminarian Josh S. show you where to cut the crap, with his helpful recent guide to church growth.

From the blogosphere

If I had to pick something, I don't think I'd hesitate to say that Laurie Bertrand's photos of children's (mainly her nieces' & nephews') faces are just about my favorite thing about the World Wide Web. (I've made enthusiasm for them known here before.) There may be an infinite variety of artfully compelling portraits of children to be found out there in photographers' portfolios, Flickr galleries, and so on, but it's safe to say there aren't so many in which, as with these, it's the photographer's love for the sitter that's often so evidently present as subject, as registered in the very acceptance in the gaze returned to the camera.

Today's post and last Tuesday's deliver us a few more of these wonderful images.

From the blogosphere

Tala Strauss, in a nice bit of blogging earlier this week, recalls (?) a conversational incident:

A good piece of advice is one you can't take. In an intellectual hotspot around the corner from an Ivy League school, I ask my victim of the hour what he thinks I should do with the rest of my highschool years. I'm prepared for something like "get the best grades you can" or "work hard" or "figure out an attack plan to shoot down those evil _____ who are destroying our country with their lies." And he looks me straight in the eye and says, "Learn to love the people you find it hardest to love."

Gideon's back

Or nearly so. And there are changes. See the new setup in the works at gideonstrauss.com.

I don't know what to think of Mr Strauss's positions, often enough; but I'm delighted to see him set to get making his case again in the online arena, and hope he'll return to it with vigor.