Texas

Whitney and I have had a blast running around the country for the last week and a half. We started in Dallas and asked the Walker's for a relaxing time while in Texas. We were so thankful that we just spent tons of time playing games, eating good food, and enjoying wonderful conversations. We got to spend time with Brandon's girlfriend Lauren, Aunt Bobby, Uncle Pete and also spent some quality time with Mary, Whitney's best friend. Some highlights to the week included greeting troops, Apples to Apples, Scrabble, appetizers, monkey bread, and my first hole in one! My 153 yard nine iron dropped in the cup on the 11th hole at Lantana. It was an amazing feeling and it was great to celebrate the shot with Mike and Brandon... We were all really excited. The whole week was wonderfully rehabilitating in leaving the craziness of Los Angeles. I'll attach some pics and write more about the rest of our trip later... Have a happy New Year!

Jacks Mannequin

A Rare Occasion

It isn't a common day that I get to go spend time with family for Christmas. Yet on this special day, a rare occasion, Whitney and I will be on our way to Texas for the holiday this evening. We can't wait! Potentially on more of a rare occasion, I come across a band that I recommend to people. I keep up well with film, but when it comes to music, I am always following behind the "hip" folks (I think that this just comes with old age!!! But... I feel so cool that I may have come across a band that might change your life and that I might be able to introduce to people. (It would be hysterical if everybody already knew about this band and that I really am behind!) Anyway, the band is called Jacks Mannequin. They are out of Santa Monica and one of my students told me about this band yesterday. I downloaded Dark Blue and it is a fantastic song. Be sure to check them out!

Angels We Have Seen On High

We used to go to the Festival of the Lights when I was growing up as a kid. It was a Christmas program at Calvary church in Grand Rapids and it always set the mood for the holiday season for my family. With expectations of a similiar program at the Crystal Cathedral, my grandparents took Whitney and I to celebrate Christmas this past weekend down in Anaheim. The best way to describe the show may be similiar to my past experience at Calvary, but on steroids. The program at the Crystal Cathedral did not only include the narrative (sort of) of the birth of Jesus, but also, live horses, camels, and angels flying high above our heads! We all enjoyed the show and agreed that this event needs to become a holiday tradition. We also spent time down in Old Town and around Fuller's Campus. It was a lovely weekend, and Whitney and I were spoiled by our grandparents. This week is filled with work until Whitney and I leave for Texas for Christmas on Thursday evening. We can't wait to be with family and to have some time to relax.

A Future Blog of Daddiness

The best news of the day is that Ben Polavin started a blog! Any time I get a chance to get inside his head, I take the opportunity and now I get to do it on a regular basis! Check him out at http://www.bpolavin.blogspot.com... I also added him on my links.

Absolutely Reflecting

Through listening to some new lectures via mp3 from a class that I will be taking over the next couple of months, I have entered into some reflection over the nature and history of absolutes. My first mentor, Mark Dewey addressed absolutes early in my understanding of reality. He had a wonderful point. He would say, "Nick, are there any absolutes?" Just to get him worked up I would say no... He would then respond with, "Really... absolutely? Are there absolutely no absolutes." I think that you get what I am saying. Regardless... Conversation on this topic continues to be prevalent in the lives of most evangelicals. (This conversation, however, may often be forced by overzealous evangelicals desiring to banish the false reality of absolute pluralism that they imagine surround themselves in their post-modern context.!.!!) I have been pondering this question more intently after Lyn TenBrink, of all people, came and sat down next to me at a party as I was by myself and cracked the joke, "Are you pondering the absolutes?" I laughed, but this retriggered a little somethin somethin inside of me that rooted back to the Mark Dewey days. So, back to this class, I liked what Dr. Ray Anderson was talking about. I will quote him by saying that "the absolute is known in the personal". I love this quote and I feel like we could run with this quote in a million different directions... But I would love to connect it to the idea of the "personalness" of story. I feel safe conjuring up the idea that if the absolute is known in the personal and that story is personal, then absolute can be transferred in story. We can then easily connect this to the Hebrew Bible and then to the story that continues in the life of Jesus and the New Testament and the early fathers, and the apostolic fathers, and then to the apologists, and the martyrs, and so on and so on and so on until we arrive at our point in time here in 2006. So what does this connection to story, and therefore to the absolutes mean for us here today??? I'm not ABSOLUTELY sure, but I do feel comfortable writing that I have never loved my wife more, I also know that the feelings of missing family and friends back in Michigan have never been more real for Whitney and I. I also know that while I have never been more skeptical of congregational Sunday morning worship, I love the church more than ever. These such things are personal, absolute, and mysteriously connected to not only my story, but to the stories of the past.

Korean Barbeque, Beans, and 10.2 megapixels

Our friend Jonny was so kind on Monday night and took us over to Korea Town, otherwise known as K-Town, for a night full of fun. He is a second generation Korean and told us all about the cultural practices of Korean Christians as they continue to in the process of assimilation into American culture. We had a blast all evening. The evening included, korean barbeque at Manna (a new stpale for all who come to visit LA), ice gream with green tea and beans, a stop by a beautiful mall and a late night game of chess. It was a joy to hear stories all evening. Yesterday was also a unique day. I have been desiring to buy Whitney a professional SLR camera for a long time. With the progress of technology, I learned that this was now a possibility for us. So... after doing my homework I bought Whitney a brand new Nikon D-80 SLR yesterday! I couldn't contain myself as I biked right over to her office, handle bars full of goodies, (camera, wide angle lens, tripod, bag, printer) and ran into her office singing Here Comes Santa Claus. It was funny to watch her as I knew that she wanted to jump out of her skin with excitement, but had her bosses all around her as I gathered a pack of people with my obnoxious singing. We played with it all last night and we are beginning to realize the power of the piece of equipment. I can't wait to see the potential that this camera releases in her. Click on the comparison photos for you of the mountains behind our house, as I stood in the same spot, from our Kodak camera and the D80. (Which, by the way, the Kodak that we were given for our wedding has been amazing and we will continue to use it for everyday type of pics.)

Growing Relationships

Whitney and I are thankful. For a weekend that included Settlers of Catan, a 1980's mustache and ski party, and Christmas Hymns, we feel blessed. I think that the heart beat of this feeling however, is something quite deeper than the action of "hanging out". I feel like it probably extends into a thankfulness that we have for new and growing relationships with so many new people. Here are some pics from the weekend, and yes, those mustaches are for real!

In Response

This post is dedicated to Justin Beck (and those whom dwell in the great white north) in response to his most recent post from Hudsonville, MI.

For the First Time...

With military industrial complex on my brain from a documentary that I have recently watched, and from viewing the live casting of the Iraq Study Group this morning, for the first time this morning the depth of complexity and mess of our current state of affairs in Iraq is REALLY sinking into my bones. I don't think that anybody really knows where we are going. Scary stuff.

Great Video

Be sure to check out Justin Beck's website and the video that he posted. Some powerful stuff.
http://beckjustin.blogspot.com/

Now and Processing Towards the Not Yet

Here is a research paper that I just finished on the paradoxical Kingdom of God for my NT1 class called Gospels at Fuller Seminary. The class was taken with D.A. Hagner and was very informative. Leave a comment, shoot me an e-mail, or give me a call if you would like to have a conversation about this good stuff. PEACE!!!

A bride and groom embrace in the promise of a covenant to one another. The change has happened. Two have become one. The love of the bride and groom is realized, yet there is something more to this mysterious celebration. While embracing and recognizing the beauty of the moment of promise to a covenant, the bride and groom also wait in anticipation, recognizing that their love is but a “mustard seed”, with potential to grow into “the largest of the plants in the garden”. Thus, there is also celebration and anticipation within the future of the love of the bride and of the groom on their wedding day. Similar to the realized and future celebration and hope that mysteriously manifests itself on a wedding day, so it is with the Kingdom of God. Even from the book of Amos, the Day of Yahweh was a day of expectation of the radical in breaking of God into history to establish his rule. The reign of God has come. The Kingdom of God has come and thus has established realized eschatology. Yet a paradox exists. While the Kingdom is realized, there is also a certain hope and celebration in the truth that more is to come. The reign is a process that will one day be manifested in a fuller sense. This is the future eschatological condition that humanity finds itself in. Thus we have a paradox. To gain a larger perspective on reality, this paradox must be embraced. The Kingdom of God is the dynamic reign of God and is both realized and waited for by the church. Also, the Kingdom is not either here, or not here. It is both here, and in the process of fully being here.
Biblically, this paradox is evident throughout the Gospels. Jesus tells stories that can often be confusing regarding the Kingdom. Some stories tell of a Kingdom that will be coming (future eschatology), and sometimes he speaks as if the Kingdom is near, or even here (realized eschatology). The best way to handle these different passages is to recognize whether Jesus is speaking of realized eschatology, future eschatology, or both. The following paragraphs will take a close look at this type of exegesis.
John the Baptist must be understood in order to understand realized eschatology. In chapter eleven of the gospel according to Matthew, he writes of a shift in reality that occurs through the coming of John the Baptist. Verse thirteen shares that an era has ended and has begun with John. This new time in space and reality is given the label “The Kingdom of God”. Matthew continues to develop thoughts regarding the Kingdom into chapter thirteen of his gospel. In verse thirty-three Jesus tells the parable of the leaven. This parable is of certain interest because it supports two opposite views. The first view, which has been the view of dispensational thinkers, speaks of the yeast within parable of the leavens as evil doctrine permeating an apostate Christian church. When the surrounding pericopes are taken into account, the dispensational view falls short when compared to the opposing view. The opposite view interprets the yeast as a beginning, not only to the Kingdom of God, but also to the process of the Kingdom of God coming in its fullest sense. In order for yeast to work within dough, it needs to be kneaded and kneading takes time, sweat, and effort. While the yeast seems small and insignificant, it begins to work through dough and becomes something more and more altering within the dough. The precise time and the precise action of how the future Kingdom will fully come has nothing to do with this parable. The parable is an announcement of realized eschatology and also embraces the mysterious process of the development of the Kingdom of God that is gradually occurring in the world here and now.
There is also ample material within the gospels that reveal portions of truth regarding the future eschatological Kingdom. Interestingly enough, both Bultmann and Bright agree that Jesus was not all that interested in having dialogue regarding apocalyptic instruction. While he was not interested in instruction, he did, however, share realities of what future eschatology will entail. Luke writes a dramatic account of future eschatology in his seventeenth chapter. (Similar to Matthew’s more detailed account in his twenty fourth chapter.) Verses twenty-two through thirty-seven include many interesting details. The first of the interesting details is that the timing behind the coming of the Son of Man will be mysterious. Luke writes that the coming will be like lighting. The second detail from this pericope is that there will be judgment for the individual at the second coming. George Eldon Ladd writes “Jesus really had little to say about the destiny of the individual apart from his or her place in the eschatological Kingdom of God.” With this in mind, Luke speaks of individuals being “taken away” towards the end of the chapter. (This idea aligns well with numerous visions of harvest and separation of peoples found in other portions of the Gospel.) In very end, the disciples ask where individuals will be taken at the coming of the future eschatological Kingdom, and Jesus responds with, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.” While many evangelicals picture a “rapture” of saints at this moment in time, Jesus seems to have a different perspective towards future eschatology. In Luke, Jesus describes the destiny of individuals who love God as being “left behind” while the others are sorted into a place of dead bodies and vultures.
The paradox of the eschatological Kingdom includes that the Kingdom is both here, not yet here, and in the process of coming more fully within time and space. Jesus often includes this paradoxical mystery in his teaching. A passage that represents the idea of a paradoxical Kingdom is found in the fourth chapter of the gospel according to Mark. Within the parable of the growing seed, Jesus speaks of a man scattering seed on the ground. This seed, similar to the yeast and the leaven, implies a “small” start to this new shift in reality called the Kingdom of God. Verse twenty-seven then describes that night and day the seed sprout and grows, though the man who spread the seed does not know how. This verse is representative of the ongoing process of the Kingdom and even alludes to God’s active work within this process outside of human effort. At the end of the parable, Mark writes that Jesus taught that a harvest would come, and that a sickle would be used on the ripe grain at the time of the harvest. Jesus here, of course, is speaking of future eschatology and the time of His return. Seedtime (realized) and harvest (future), both are the work of the sovereign God of the universe. Embodied within one parable we encounter the reality of both realized and future eschatology.
Matthew thirteen is another place where the realized Kingdom and the future Kingdom are taught simultaneously. In the parable of the sower, the Kingdom, once again, begins with the idea of seeds. (However in this parable Matthew adds the adjective good to tell his readers more about the condition of the seeds.) As the story continues, weeds that have been planted by the enemy also grow with the wheat. This is a reality of the realized Kingdom. Weeds and wheat from good seeds grow with one another. Raymond Brown parallels the weeds from the story as evil people whose stories will be intertwined with people of the Kingdom in this current state of realized eschatology. While there is a process of growth in the realized Kingdom, moving forward towards another radical in breaking, weeds are also present amongst the areas in life that seem to be representative of “good wheat”. Ladd recognizes that early scholarship missed the purpose of the parable by relating the field with only the church, and not the world. He continues with the idea that the Kingdom has come, but with the Kingdom did not come an uprooting of society. The stories of people, both good and bad, are bound together in the present world and only at the time of the future Kingdom will they be fully separated. This parable ends with a more detailed account of the future eschatological coming of the Kingdom. Again, at this time we see a time of judgment and separation. Ladd puts it best…
“This separation is sure to come. The Kingdom that is present but hidden in the world will yet be manifested in glory. Then there will be an end of the mixed society. The wicked will be gathered out and the righteous will shine like the sun in the eschatological Kingdom.”

The end of the parable aligns well with earlier thoughts from this paper found within Luke seventeen. The weeds will be gathered first at the time of this separation. The theology behind the weeds being bundled and burned while the wheat is gathered into the barn is for another time, but separation will assuredly take place within the framework of the future eschatological Kingdom. So again, within a teaching of Jesus, written down through the work of the first evangelist, as led by the Holy Spirit, embrace is encountered regarding the current paradox of the now and not yet Kingdom.
Through the Gospel writers, with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Jesus speaks of a present Kingdom, and of a future Kingdom. Similar to a bride and a groom on their wedding day, there is hope and beauty in both the realized condition of their love and of the potential in the future depth love that will miraculously grow deeper as time and space allow. Jesus’ eschatology also includes the likes of both the realized and the future. His realized eschatology seems to point in the direction of a “small” beginning. Yet in the midst of realized eschatology also seems to be a movement of process towards the future eschatological condition. The Kingdom is extending towards this unusual time when Jesus will appear in an enigmatic fashion and will seemingly judge the individual. There will be another radical in breaking and it will be miraculous. The Kingdom is not either here, or not here. It is both here, and in the process of fully being here. A holistic understanding of the teachings of Jesus leaves room for this mysteriously important paradox.

Gagging

The BCS is a joke.

Honestly... Is There Any Question?

OR






It is the beginning of the 4th quarter in the USC vs. UCLA game. UCLA is up 10-9 and I really only have one thing to say after watching both USC and UofM play... If we want a blow out for the BCS Championship game, we will let UCS play Ohio State. If we want to see a good game of the two best college football teams in the country, we will see a rematch of UofM and OSU on a neutral playing field in Glendale, AZ.

(And by the way... If Florida slips in ahead of UofM I will be busy gagging through the new year.)

Integrate Your Sphere

With finals around the corner (next week) times here will be getting busy. Fortunately I have finished all of my writing for the quarter, and now all I have to do is read and work through notes. I have one final on each of the first three days of the work week and I am looking forward to having a bit of a break after Wednesday. It's time to buckle in for the weekend!

Whitney and I attended my staff Christmas party last night. We had a fun moment as we took in all of the conversations from 30-40 different people who work as a tutor. (Many of them being from Fuller Seminary.) While we often make jokes about constantly being surrounded by a bunch of seminary "nerds", (of which we also regard ourselves...) we feel quite fortunate to be around a place where so many people want to give their lives to loving and caring for people. I am often skeptical when I hear Christians talking about their desire to care for the oppressed and the marginalized. While the lingo is great, I feel like there is a component to this language that "cool" in Christianese right now. Sometimes I especially feel this spirit about people after learning more about the fruit in which they bear on a daily basis. This concerns me, and has often left me bewildered. BUT... I feel like I have been encouraged in my skeptical nature as many of the people around us here have REALLY lived a life that is focused on unselfishly loving and caring for the poor and the marginalized. There is a difference in the way that these people think and live. (I have a long way to go to enter into this type of thinking, and don't know if I ever will. (Even though it is so "cool" right now to be this type of follower of Jesus. May that always be the case!) I don't know if everybody is called to this type of love as a top priority. But I might totally be wrong...Or I might be right... Or I guess that I might be both!) Widows, orphans, homeless, other nations, our nation, they live to help people, and here is the key... without the sole anticipation of extending God's Kingdom and not their own Kingdom as a sub-component of God's Kingdom. This is their heart. This is there "centeredness". This is their ethos. I am energized by these types of people and feel so blessed to be in their presence on a daily basis here at Fuller. As Whitney and I closed the conversation, we remembered that while Fuller is wonderful, but that it is also a bubble. (As is everywhere else. For heavens sake, WE LIVE ON A BIG SPHERICAL BUBBLE!) A key, as I am processing through, is to integrate our bubbles to move into a deeper level of reality, and therefore a deeper level of the Kingdom of Heaven. So you wanna know what heaven is like?.??!?? Here is a five step systematic plan to learning more about the future (and hopefully the realized) eschatology of heaven... (This is for those of you that are modern/enlightenment thinkers. If you didn't like the set-up of the spew of random information from the last paragraph, then you might just be a modern thinker and this nice list is for you!)

1.) Accept that you live in a bubble.
2.) Accept that you live in multiple bubbles.
3.) Accept that other people live in bubbles too and that no one else’s bubble is the same as yours.
4.) Humbly recognize the strengths and weakness of your bubble. (Hopefully one of the weakness isn't an ignorance to the beauty of other bubbles!)
5.) Integrate your bubble!
6.) Be unified in the diversity of your bubbles as you humbly and generously say to one another... "Welcome to heaven! Can I get you a piece of bread and a glass of wine?"