Tuesday, January 12, 2010
UPDATED: Kiffin ditches Vols to take over for Carroll at USC - NCAA Football - CBSSports.com
Kiffin ditches Vols to take over for Carroll at USC - NCAA Football - CBSSports.com
From the article:
"The 34-year-old Kiffin is one of Carroll's top disciples from his nine-year tenure at USC."
OK, for my really, really Anglican readers: does that make Kiffin a Carrolline Divine?
For the more football minded, Kiffin (who likes to coach offense) is bringing along his dad, Monte, a defensive guy, and Ed Orgeron, a d-type who recruited many of the standout players for Carroll.
UPDATE: ESPN L.A.'S ARASH MARKAZI TWEETING THAT NORM CHOW WILL LEAVE UCLA AND RETURN TO USC AS OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR!
I'm starting to feel better about my USC at Minnesota tix for Sept. 18th!
From the article:
"The 34-year-old Kiffin is one of Carroll's top disciples from his nine-year tenure at USC."
OK, for my really, really Anglican readers: does that make Kiffin a Carrolline Divine?
For the more football minded, Kiffin (who likes to coach offense) is bringing along his dad, Monte, a defensive guy, and Ed Orgeron, a d-type who recruited many of the standout players for Carroll.
UPDATE: ESPN L.A.'S ARASH MARKAZI TWEETING THAT NORM CHOW WILL LEAVE UCLA AND RETURN TO USC AS OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR!
I'm starting to feel better about my USC at Minnesota tix for Sept. 18th!
Psalm 88:12 again
Here's the verse as it appears in The Book of Common Prayer 1979:
Will your loving-kindness be declared in the grave? *
your faithfulness in the land of destruction?
Here's an edit of what I said about it on another blog:
How blessedly amazing it is that God breathed these words into Scripture. What terrible agony he must have allowed to "inspire" the Psalmist to such words, yet here they are as God's Word written.
They cause us to butt up against the reality that the church is too much about divvying up the satisfied and attractive, when the body of Christ really should be walking around in "the grave and place of destruction," preaching Jesus to the people there - the people so marginal or crushed that more time to live is just as bad as time running out.
Like many clergy, the church did not "breed me" to walk into that place, and so in many ways I retard the growth of Christ's body. It is as though I must find a way of repentance which lets me respond to Psalm 88:12 with, "Here I am! Send me!"
First I need that coal to touch my lips.
Will your loving-kindness be declared in the grave? *
your faithfulness in the land of destruction?
Here's an edit of what I said about it on another blog:
How blessedly amazing it is that God breathed these words into Scripture. What terrible agony he must have allowed to "inspire" the Psalmist to such words, yet here they are as God's Word written.
They cause us to butt up against the reality that the church is too much about divvying up the satisfied and attractive, when the body of Christ really should be walking around in "the grave and place of destruction," preaching Jesus to the people there - the people so marginal or crushed that more time to live is just as bad as time running out.
Like many clergy, the church did not "breed me" to walk into that place, and so in many ways I retard the growth of Christ's body. It is as though I must find a way of repentance which lets me respond to Psalm 88:12 with, "Here I am! Send me!"
First I need that coal to touch my lips.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Nebraska's loss, Heaven's gain: Tom Tomlinson, RIP
Tom Tomlinson died in Norfolk, Nebraska yesterday.
Tom had a rich life of public service, both in the U.S. Navy and as long time planner for the historic city of San Juan Capistrano, California - the last place my family lived before moving here and a really pleasant "small town" on SoCal terms. That was due, in good measure, to Tom's work (I currently have Larry Weires, a retired Sioux Falls planner, in my congregation - God is gracious to let me meet people who were making my life better when I didn't even know it).
But I'm posting this because Tom is yet another saint in what seems like a recent procession from this world to God's kingdom. Tom was a devoted disciple of Jesus Christ, and a generous servant in the Cursillo movement. He was on the team that served me so wonderfully when I attended #151 in Los Angeles. The theme was Jesus' promise to return: "They will see the Son of Man..." Tom sees him now, smiling.
Tom's widow is The Reverend Ruth Tomlinson, Rector of Trinity Church, Norfolk. We served together in the Diocese of Los Angeles before both of us were called to spots here on the Northern Plains.
Please pray - give thanks for Tom's life and his completion of the race that Christ set before him. Ask comfort for Ruth, for their daughter Amy, and for their son David and his wife Karen (who welcomed their new baby Taylor on December 29th).
Tom had a rich life of public service, both in the U.S. Navy and as long time planner for the historic city of San Juan Capistrano, California - the last place my family lived before moving here and a really pleasant "small town" on SoCal terms. That was due, in good measure, to Tom's work (I currently have Larry Weires, a retired Sioux Falls planner, in my congregation - God is gracious to let me meet people who were making my life better when I didn't even know it).
But I'm posting this because Tom is yet another saint in what seems like a recent procession from this world to God's kingdom. Tom was a devoted disciple of Jesus Christ, and a generous servant in the Cursillo movement. He was on the team that served me so wonderfully when I attended #151 in Los Angeles. The theme was Jesus' promise to return: "They will see the Son of Man..." Tom sees him now, smiling.
Tom's widow is The Reverend Ruth Tomlinson, Rector of Trinity Church, Norfolk. We served together in the Diocese of Los Angeles before both of us were called to spots here on the Northern Plains.
Please pray - give thanks for Tom's life and his completion of the race that Christ set before him. Ask comfort for Ruth, for their daughter Amy, and for their son David and his wife Karen (who welcomed their new baby Taylor on December 29th).
What's up with all this Gregorian stuff?
Yeah, I've been posting a bunch of quotes from St. Gregory the Great.
Last September, I commenced a year of discernment toward profession as an Oblate of Blue Cloud Abbey. (Hmm, wonder if I can work any more confusing church vocabulary into one sentence?)
Let me say some "nots" first:
Last September, I commenced a year of discernment toward profession as an Oblate of Blue Cloud Abbey. (Hmm, wonder if I can work any more confusing church vocabulary into one sentence?)
Let me say some "nots" first:
- - I am not taking up the Papal offer of Roman Catholic oversight.
- - I am not becoming a monk.
What am I doing?
- + Anchoring my life in disciplines of prayer and spiritual reflection that can get swept away by the "normal" busyness of life.
- + Surrendering more time, thought and conduct to some significant renewal that God is doing in my life.
- + Getting back to who God made me to be - a man acting from a foundation of prayer and study.
- + Reconnecting with an important source of Anglican spirituality. The Benedictine way of life flows directly into The Book of Common Prayer with its sanctification of time and the normal routines of human life.
Why Gregory?
- + A bit of personal identification. Gregory, who preferred the life of peaceful contemplation, was called to Christian leadership in a time of dizzying social upheaval. Folks who know me will be L-ingOL at that similarity of situation (except Gregory seems to have been competent).
- + Gregory holds a special place for Anglicans. He launched a significant missionary endeavor to England, which resulted in the rise of Canterbury as the seat of Anglican Christian identity.
- + In our polarized world, Gregory is an attractive figure toward Christian unity. Theodosia Tomkinson calls Gregory "the Dialogist, Pope of Rome and Apostle to the English" - an expression of his value to Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Anglican Christians. His devotion to Scripture as the source of teaching and his understanding of Peter's authority flowing from the right confession of faith resonate with ideas of the Protestant Reformation as well. No less than John Calvin spoke well of Gregory.
- + I started my discernment year last September and Gregory's commemoration on the Roman and Church of England calendars is September 3rd.
How am I going about this?
- + Through my established discipline of Morning and Evening Prayer from The Book of Common Prayer. My evening devotions now include reading a chapter from The Rule of St. Benedict.
- + Adding prayerful structure to the working day. At Noon, I read a Psalm, a selection from one of Gregory's sermons, and say the Lord's Prayer.
- + I am taking blocks of time to read Gregory's Homilies on the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel. (Thanks sweet wife for this and several other Benedictine books under the Christmas tree!)
- + I am being more attentive to Christian community, both in family life and by participating in a parish small group study of the Psalms, and seeking to apply ideas from Benedict's rule.
- + Inflicting quotes from Gregory on my blog readers.
As you can imagine, I fall short in all of these efforts, but that is part of growing up in Christ. Even in failure, I am discovering more about God's grace and power to restore and renew - and even to transform.
Your prayers are appreciated. I don't think we pray enough for the most important things in Christian life. In fact, Benedict's writings on the role of the Abbott and Gregory's views on preaching and pastoring are making me much more of an intercessor for my parish. Not just praying reactively to problems, but really asking God to bring the people "to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13).
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