Around the Horn

Juan Cole lists his own Top 10 Green Energy Good News Stories.

James K. A. Smith offers a minor push-back against studies on why young people are leaving the church.

Bob Hyatt offers a middle-ground on the same-sex marriage debate (via Tony Jones).

I really like this picture of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Andrew Jones is grumpy towards contemporary worship songs.

Jon Arbuckle is fascinated with his hand.

Around the Horn

Looks like Jamie Smith received some critical responses to his open letter to praise bands. He's followed up here and here with a few more thoughts.

Saw this video on Tony Jones site. Very interesting local news story done on Mark Driscoll's Mar Hill churches.

If you're up for a good story, you gotta check out this one by Maria. You wish you had to guts to do this!

Need some new music? The John McKenna Band just released a new EP. Check out Tim's review here.

Franklin Graham apologizes for his huge flop last week when he fumbled over his answer to the question of whether or not Barak Obama is a Christian. Check out the whole video here.

Rowan Williams and Richard Dawkins faced off last week on the subject of the nature of human beings and the question of their ultimate origin. Check out the video here. I'll hopefully soon contribute my own response to this as I am finding the buzz over Dawkins's claim that there is .01% chance that God exists to be a bit over played and rather mundane compared to some of the things Williams said.

And lastly, another Garfield minus Garfield cartoon for your weekend pleasure:

Love, Liturgy, the Mall, and Backward Pants

Here's another one from the Garfield minus Garfield people.










I think this is pretty profound. There are a couple of way to look at this.

It could be that he is elated that someone would want to be him and then crushed when this other person changed his or her mind. Perhaps to Jon Q. Arbuckle his is an identity worth sharing and he wants to share it with everyone.

Or he is eluted to be free of his identity, as if it was something to rid himself of, only to find that the other person has given it back, thus he remains trapped in his identity.

In any case, it reminded me of a quote from James K. A. Smith:

“Liturgies—whether ‘sacred’ or ‘secular’—shape and construe our identities by forming our most fundamental desires and our most basic attunement to the world. In short, liturgies make us certain kinds of people, and what defines us is what we love.

We are defined but what we love, which could end up being something that we want to share with others or something that we, ourselves, actually want to be free from.

The real question is: do we know what we love? And does it makes us into the kind of people who can/want to share it with others? Or does what we love ultimately trap us in identities not worth sharing. Identities we, in fact, grow to despise.  

I suggest you watch a segment from a lecture Smith did (watch from 7:15 to about 13:00). He uses the Mall as an example of how liturgy works. In the clip he says, "The Mall is a liturgical institution ... a formative institution that wants to shape your identity by shaping what you love." We are what we love.

This is why parody, satire, humor, etc is so powerful. If you don't believe me then consider the phenomenon of Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert. Deconstruction works the same way, which is why I love these Garfield cartoons. These things can help us recognize the assumptions we make about what is good, true, and beautiful, whether they are good or bad assumptions.

And with that, I close with this. The hope of cultivating a profound awareness about the deep things of God. It is the goal of liturgy.