Snow

Request to the local Seattle media: when there is a forecast for snow or if it does indeed snow an entire inch or so (perish the thought), could you please not report the event as if the fifth horseman of the apocalypse has arrived? Please? I'm sure it is ratings driven but the fear-mongering is getting out of hand.

You've been Rick-rolled

In our cynical and apathetic world, it is rare when true beauty breaks through the weathered and worn cracks of our banal existence. True beauty brings a welcome shower that quenches our thirst and cleanses us from the dirt on our hands. The world looks different to us in light of this beauty. Instead of walking through life staring at our shoes, we have a new spring in our step. Instead of being bent over under our heavy labor, we are able to stand tall, come what may. The sun seems to be shining that much brighter. The birds are chirping. Even the dirt on which we stand is a miracle!

We live life expecting so much and hoping for so little. Having a glimpse of true beauty changes all that. May we all be changed.

The means never justifies the end

"You have gone far wrong. Thirst was made for water; inquiry for truth. What you now call the free play of inquiry has neither more nor less to do with which the ends of intelligence was given you than masturbation has to do with marriage."
--C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

Growing up, there was a parsonage next door to the church where my Dad was pastor. In front of this parsonage was a wooden staircase leading up to a second-story entrance to the home. One day my brother and I, in a fit of pre-teen mischievousness, thought it would be fun to peel back some of the shingles that we could reach on the parsonage roof from that second-story entrance and fling them as far as we could into the parking lot below.

As I reflected on this memory, the immediate question I had was, "What were we thinking!?" We knew what we were doing was a) wrong and b) would get us into trouble shortly. Yet, we still did it and thought it was pretty fun as well. I can only speculate now what our immature motivations were at the time but undoubtedly the thrill of doing something risque factored into our behavior. In our clouded minds it felt good on some level to peel back the shingles and see how far we could throw it. We were also at the age where we were trying to push at established boundaries to see what we could get away with. Would we really get into trouble?

I have made these evaluations of the pre-teen me from a distance, looking back at my childhood memory with disapproval and disdain. Obviously I've come a long way since then. But have I? Sometimes I wonder how much I have really grown up, if at all. Maybe I just do a better job of hiding my true motivations now. How often I am faced with a decision or situation that requires personal effort on my part (helping my wife when I'm tired, the list goes on and on), and knowing how I should respond (yes! objectively knowing!) I instead passively choose what is easy and comfortable for me (usually to my own detriment I might add).

I read the above quote (passed on to me from a friend who had said it had haunted him for years) in a similar context. "Questions" are certainly a buzz word in Chrisitianity these days. Questions are good in the sense that they are a means to an end. However, as Lewis points out, questions lose their value when they become an end in and of themselves. "Questions" can easily spiral beyond their useful purpose and instead become feelble and immature attempts to justify myself before God. Questions should not be asked if one has no intention of finding an answer. Instead they become a convenient excuse for my own laziness or indecision and I use the same naive rationalization process I used to justify tearing perfectly good shingles off a roof and throwing them down to the ground.

A wonderful first week of baseball.

Great Lent

A little over two weeks ago Great Lent began in the Orthodox Church. Last year we celebrated Easter (or Pascha, Greek for Passover) on the same day as Western Christianity but this year we are several weeks later (April 27th), as the day is reckoned differently.

The week prior to Lent I had the opportunity to listen to a lecture by His Eminence, Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, perhaps the most well known Orthodox teacher and scholar in the world today. The lecture took place at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Chuch in the Montlake neighborhood of Seattle following Vespers. As far as I know, his lecture on Lent and the meaning of fasting was not recorded, but another recent interview concerning the sacramental life can be listened to here (posted on March 7th), some of which was repeated in the lecture that I attended. If nothing else, the interview is worth listening to since His Eminence sounds as if he is hosting Masterpiece Theater. All kidding aside, the interview is beneficial and well worth listening to, even if one is not Orthodox.


The beginning of Lent is inaugurated by Forgiveness Vespers. As the title of the service suggests, every member of the parish quite literally asks everyone else present at the service, one by one, for forgiveness. All of this takes place simultaneously in a sort of forgiveness conga-line around the perimeter of the nave. As simple and straightforward as the service may sound, I have found it to be one of the most memorable and profound that I have ever attended. As each person humbles themselves before the other, something quite special and unusual (or is it natural?) happens that defies description. While the service certainly has penitential aspects, because of the restoration that ultimately takes place during the 45 minutes or so of the forgiveness-fest, our nave was filled with the sounds of joyful tears. Lent is often described by the Orthodox as a "bright sadness" and Forgiveness Vespers is one such example.

During the first week of Great Lent, the canon of St. Andrew of Crete, which dates to the 7th century, is read in its entirety over 3 separate services (it is also read in its entirety on the Wednesday of the 5th week of Lent). The service is notable for its many troparia (hymns of one stanza each) followed by the refrain, "Have mercy on me O God, have mercy on me" which in turn is followed by a full prostration.

It is clear from reading the Canon of St. Andrew that he took his own sin quite seriously. This is something that I have found to be true of the larger Orthodox Church. It is my understanding that this attitude of repentance for sin is not based primarily on personal guilt or fear of an angry God that seeks to be appeased or levy judgment because He cannot tolerate sin. Quite simply, sin is taken seriously because love is taken seriously. Sin obscures love. Unchecked selfishness trumps self-sacrifice. Sin is not a consequence of original guilt, it is a self-inflicted wound. The inevitable death that results from sin is a natural consequence of our willing choice. God in His mercy does not desire our groveling or self-flagellation. But he does desire that we repent of our sin and instead turn and reorient ourselves to life that he originally intended. Following is an excerpt from Canticle Two of the Lenten Triodion, translated by Metropolitan Ware and Mother Mary:

I am surrounded by the storm of sin O Compassionate Lord. But stretch out Thine hand to me, as Thou has to Peter.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.

I offer to Thee, O merciful Lord, the tears of the harlot. Take pity on me O Savior, in Thy compassion.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.

With the lusts of passion I have darkened the beauty of my soul and turned my mind entirely into dust.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.

I have torn the first garment that the Creator wove for me in the beginning, and now I lie naked.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.

I have clothed myself in the torn coat that the serpent wove for me by his counsel, and I am ashamed.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.

I looked upon the beauty of the tree and my mind was deceived; and now I lie naked and ashamed.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.

All the ruling passions have plowed upon my back, making long furrows of wickedness.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.

I have lost the beauty and glory with which I was first created; and now I lie naked and ashamed.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.

Sin has stripped me of the robe that God once wove for me, and it has sowed for me garments of sin.

Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.

I am clothed with the raiment of shame as with fig leaves, in condemnation of my self-willed passions.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.

Saturday Night's Alright for Blogging

Especially when it concerns my beloved Seattle Mariners. The new season opens on the 31st and I will be in attendance at Safeco Field for the opening pitch from Erik Bedard. This past off season was marked by controversy, as the M's traded their mostly highly touted "prospect" and 4 other players for Bedard. The trade threw the highly developed and critical Mariners blogosphere into a cataclysmic tizzy, with the anti-trade camp raving that the M's, being a team that isn't that good and needs to rebuild, gave up far too much for a pitcher with a sketchy health record and only two years guaranteed left on his contract. The pro-trade camp countered that Bedard is the top of the rotation starter that M's have been missing and his presence will close the gap between Seattle and the winners of the division title in 2007, the Los Angeles Angels. Since I am a nerd, I spent far too much time this winter lurking in various blogs following the debate in all of its nauseating detail, of which I will spare you any further punishment. Here's to the new season.

Forgive my cynicism . . .

. . . but this magazine cover has to be one of the most ridiculous things I have seen in quite some time. Undoubtedly, part of the problem is that I openly detest politics. And I'm sure Obama is a great guy and could offer our country a change. Nevertheless, I find this self-righteousness (at least one could interpret this cover shot as such) and naive optimism disgusting/amusing.