I want this:
Buy it for me.
posted by -mike- at 1:53 PM
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welcome!
I am Mike Noakes.
That is was my pipe.
This is my blog.
Welcome.
(about me)
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(thoughts)
"Before the beautiful-no, not really before but within the beautiful-the whole person quivers. He not only 'finds' the beautiful moving; rather, he experiences himself as being moved and possessed by it."
- Hans Urs von Balthasar
"Everywhere I go, I'm asked if I think the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher."
- Flannery o'Connor
"Christians are called to leave behind, in the tomb of Jesus Christ, all that belongs to the brokenness and incompleteness of the present world. It is time, in the power of the Spirit, to take up our proper role, our fully human role, as agents, heralds, stewards of the new day that is dawning."
- NT Wright
"When we think our brother or sister has sinned against us, such an affront is not just against us but against the whole community. A community established as peaceful cannot afford to let us relish our sense of being wronged without exposing that wrong in the hopes of reconciliation."
- Stan Hauerwas
"Advertising treats all products with the reverence and the seriousness due to sacraments."
- Thomas Merton
"All the believers were of one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possesions was their own, but they shared everything that they had."
- Acts of the Apostles
"For evil men account those things alone evil which do not make men evil; neither do they blush to praise good things, and yet to remain evil among the good things they praise. It grieves them more to own a bad house than a bad life, as if it were man's greatest good to have everything good but himself."
- St. Augustine
(reading)
The Eucharist of the Early Christians
The Collected Short Stories, Flannery o'Connor
The Kingdom of God is Within You, Tolstoy
(have read)
Crossing the Threshold of Hope, Pope John Paul II
God is Near Us, Pope Benedict XVI
Heretics/Orthodoxy, GK Chesterton
Sonnets from the Portuguese, Elizabeth Barret Browning
(theology thinkers)
Bishop NT WrightStanley Hauerwas
Karl Barth
(spirituality)
Daily PrayerNutshell Christology
Patristic Resources
Renovare
Centering Prayer
Sacramental Theology
The Triune God
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(good books)
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Quote of the Week:
"You know Mike, it would explain a lot if I was gay."
An unnamed friend and I were having a conversation where he was expressing his frustration over the fact that many perceive him as a homosexual due to the fact that he is good looking, listens to nice music, dresses sharp, and can do artistic what-nots. Also he can hug, kiss, cuddle, and sleep with a guy without having any sort of internal sexual conflict. :)
posted by -mike- at 10:01 PM
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Friday, February 16, 2007
Ok, for serious this time...
NT Wright, one of my favorite teachers, has thrown his two cents in on the going-ons in Tanzania this week. Contrary to the article produced by the Episcopal News Service, Bishop Wright says that schism has, in fact, already occurred. Here is a brief excerpt I found interesting, although not unexpected:
If the Anglican Communion, and particularly the American church and others like it, can be renewed according to the pattern of the Windsor Report, which is of course according to the pattern of Scripture, then those who are looking to foreign jurisdictions will find a way to come back into the fold. Then there would be a sigh of relief all round. In American there are dozens of breakaway bits and pieces, it is confusing and very messy. It is very American. But it is very unhelpful to the cause of the Church and the Gospel. As for what would happen to Gene Robinson? Pass. I really do not think there is a good answer to that one. The Windsor Report quotes the Archbishop of Canterbury himself saying in 2003 that if Robinson were in most other provinces of the Anglican Communion, he certainly could not be a bishop. As a priest he would be under discipline because of what has happened in terms of his marriage and partnership. In most provinces he could not have been a bishop. Therefore to ask other provinces to come to Lambeth and accept Gene Robinson as one of their number is a very big ask.This is a difficult time for Anglicans across the world. May God guide the Primates and their actions to accomplish his purposes in and through the Holy Church of Christ. Repentance is certainly in order, on all sides of the discussions. May those who hold others in the Communion as heretics/schismatics discover, through the illumination only the word of God allows, the folly of their destructive ways. This whole being the church thing isn't as easy as we sometimes think it could be...
posted by -mike- at 7:49 PM
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Thursday, February 15, 2007
Bonds of Affection
So far so good. I'm doing my absolute best to keep up with this annual meeting and it seems, from my understanding, that things are going quite well, although it is still only the first day. The Episcopal News Service has a nifty little article/interview with the Archbishop of Australia, Phillip Aspinall. I would encourage all of you to check it out and read it. Here is an excerpt which sums up some of the issue the Episcopal Church faces:
More tomorrow evening.
The presentations were followed by an hour of discussion during which "the Primates were able to clarify what they thought and explore the way in which they might create a space for healing and reconciliation within the Episcopal Church," said Aspinall. He noted that the three bishops and Jefferts Schori are looking to the Primates to assist the Episcopal Church in this process, but said it was understood that the real work would need to be done by the Episcopal Church. Discussion of those specifics still remains on the Primates' agenda.The article goes on to say that "unwanted and uninvited intervention" from other areas of the communion (the Global South) will be treated later on. So far, in my opinion, at least the American province has made steps towards reconciliation whereas the others have ignored the recommendations passed in the Windsor Report.
More tomorrow evening.
posted by -mike- at 9:35 PM
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Anglicans Meet Today
Today is the beginning of the Anglican Communions annual meeting. Leaders of the Communion from all over the world will come together to discuss current issues faced by Anglicans. There are three historic groups in Anglicanism that are going to be represented today: Liberals, such as the US Episcopal church; Evangelicals, such as much of the global south; and Catholics, the camp the Archbishop of Canterbury himself belongs to. It is essential to the concept of Anglican ecclesiology that all three groups exist to critique, inform, and admonish the others for the mutual benefit of all. Unfortunately, we find that this is something which is very difficult to see through, especially now, during these challenging times for the Communion. Jordan Hylden at First Things has written a concise article on the nature of the meeting and the significance of all three groups. In light of the possible fracture Anglicans may face as a result of this meeting, Hylden offers this bit of observation:
Amen.
It is here where the wisdom of the third Anglican group, the catholics, absolutely must be heard this week in Tanzania. These Anglicans, represented best by Rowan Williams and the American theologian Ephraim Radner, believe just as strongly as the evangelicals in the bedrock truths of Christianity, but also think that the Church itself is an essential part of God’s plan for us to discern truth. Being Reformation Christians, Anglican catholics know that sometimes the Church can be wrong, thus needing always to test herself by the standard of Scripture. But they point out that while Scripture itself may be clear, we Christians are sinful and perverse, so that we stand in need of the whole body of Christ to discover God’s will for his Church.Today it is my sincere prayer that God will reveal himself in a powerful way to the various leaders representing in Tanzania that the church may be held together and brought back, one piece to another, to full restoration.
Amen.
posted by -mike- at 1:10 PM
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A Thought for Thursday
It is often fascinating to me to watch the debates involving the nature of our salvation (Calvinist vs. Arminian, works vs. grace, and so on) with participants quoting off scripture at machine-gun speed, assuming that their position (of course, a result of much study and scholarship) is the very same as that of the early Christians, even the Apostles themselves! Is our salvation a process of grace manifested in works, grace alone without any sort of evidence, grace revealed by works, simply good deeds and a clear conscience, or whatever other theory has been put forth to explain what Jesus did on the cross. Too often, these different ideas have been read into sacred scripture with the misconception that they are, in fact, the right questions to be asking.
Dear friends, Calvinists and Arminians, Catholics and Protestants: these are simply not questions that need to be asked. The text(s) of the New Testament bear witness to an executed Messiah who, through his acts of reconciliation and friendship, has begun the restoration of all creation unto himself to be made new again. We, the church catholic, bear the beginnings of that redemption in our very being and operation. Our worship, together to God, is the essence of our salvation, our becoming new again. When we examine the christian tradition as a whole, our sacred writings and teachings as well as even our art, music, and poetry, we find that the silly arguments over the nature our participatory redemption are irrelevant in the face of christian formation and sanctification.
It is time that we lay aside our imagined doctrinal presuppositions and return to a reading of scripture that allows for an interpretation given by the whole of the church's tradition, that is, how the church has read the bible in the past and how we ought to read it now. God's continuing revelation of himself ought to have a voice in our ongoing dialogue with orthodoxy and what it means to be a follower of Jesus in the 21st century post-christian West.
Brothers and Sisters, now is the time to ask the right questions, the Christians questions: Who is Jesus and how can I become more like him? If we truly believe that Jesus is the Truth and yet we don't become better people as a result of it, maybe we have some serious rethinking to do in regards to our faith.
Dear friends, Calvinists and Arminians, Catholics and Protestants: these are simply not questions that need to be asked. The text(s) of the New Testament bear witness to an executed Messiah who, through his acts of reconciliation and friendship, has begun the restoration of all creation unto himself to be made new again. We, the church catholic, bear the beginnings of that redemption in our very being and operation. Our worship, together to God, is the essence of our salvation, our becoming new again. When we examine the christian tradition as a whole, our sacred writings and teachings as well as even our art, music, and poetry, we find that the silly arguments over the nature our participatory redemption are irrelevant in the face of christian formation and sanctification.
It is time that we lay aside our imagined doctrinal presuppositions and return to a reading of scripture that allows for an interpretation given by the whole of the church's tradition, that is, how the church has read the bible in the past and how we ought to read it now. God's continuing revelation of himself ought to have a voice in our ongoing dialogue with orthodoxy and what it means to be a follower of Jesus in the 21st century post-christian West.
Brothers and Sisters, now is the time to ask the right questions, the Christians questions: Who is Jesus and how can I become more like him? If we truly believe that Jesus is the Truth and yet we don't become better people as a result of it, maybe we have some serious rethinking to do in regards to our faith.
posted by -mike- at 11:53 AM
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Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Monday, February 12, 2007
Slow Cookin'
I think I am in love! I recently sed a crock pot to prepare a meal and now I don't think I could make dinner again any other way!! Sure, it was a small meal but it was definately precious! This was how it went:
Ok, I'm done.
Everybody, go buy yourself a crockpot and make REAL food for dinner!
Pork Tenderloin RoastHonestly, I don't know if there could be any tastier thing under the sun. Seriously, it was fantastic.
1 Potato
1 Large Carrot
1/2 Onion
3 Cloves of Garlic
5 Spears Asparagus, for flavor
Salt & Pepper, to taste
Ok, I'm done.
Everybody, go buy yourself a crockpot and make REAL food for dinner!
posted by -mike- at 8:53 AM
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Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Daffy Duck on Chastity
or Why people should go through speech therapy before making their podcasts available to the whole damn world!
I told Kyle to make a blog entry with this title (taken from a discussion he and I had) but I really need to make a new post, so, yah... it's mine now!!
I have been doing something a bit unusual for me lately: listening to podcasts. I used to only have a few from Alan, Kyle, Rob Bell, and Karen Ward but now I've got a ton more! The great thing about all of these speakers is just that; they can speak. Now, I know many of us take speach for granted in that we don't really know how our voices sound. I don't think I would make a good podcaster. My voice is fine, I guess, but I have very little that I would like to talk about that others would care to hear and I seriously doubt I could present the information in a way that is delightful to the ear and informative for the mind. I am not bad but I am not good.
Others may have wonderful amounts of information that would be great to hear but their voices are so raw and grinding (or perhaps they have poor sound editing/hardware) that it is an unusually unpleasant experience hearing them speak. Perhaps their presentation could even change your life but the annoyance of having to decipher their speaking proves to be too much.
Sometimes people with fine enough voices don't even realize that that they are engaging in poor speaking habits. For example, some will "spit" into the microphone. Maybe it's accidental, maybe it's for emphasis... either way, it is annoying and I hate it very much. As Kyle said, "I absolutely refuse to listen to Daffy Duck teach on celibacy!"
Anyways, podcasters, please speak clearly and well for those of us who listen to you. If you don't next time I'll mention you by name.
:P
I have been doing something a bit unusual for me lately: listening to podcasts. I used to only have a few from Alan, Kyle, Rob Bell, and Karen Ward but now I've got a ton more! The great thing about all of these speakers is just that; they can speak. Now, I know many of us take speach for granted in that we don't really know how our voices sound. I don't think I would make a good podcaster. My voice is fine, I guess, but I have very little that I would like to talk about that others would care to hear and I seriously doubt I could present the information in a way that is delightful to the ear and informative for the mind. I am not bad but I am not good.
Others may have wonderful amounts of information that would be great to hear but their voices are so raw and grinding (or perhaps they have poor sound editing/hardware) that it is an unusually unpleasant experience hearing them speak. Perhaps their presentation could even change your life but the annoyance of having to decipher their speaking proves to be too much.
Sometimes people with fine enough voices don't even realize that that they are engaging in poor speaking habits. For example, some will "spit" into the microphone. Maybe it's accidental, maybe it's for emphasis... either way, it is annoying and I hate it very much. As Kyle said, "I absolutely refuse to listen to Daffy Duck teach on celibacy!"
Anyways, podcasters, please speak clearly and well for those of us who listen to you. If you don't next time I'll mention you by name.
:P
posted by -mike- at 10:35 AM
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