Birthday List

The anniversary of my birth is approaching, and some of my readers might be interested in buying me a present to commemorate the occasion. So as a service to you I thought I might compile some items that I would like to be possessions.

Traditional Caps are my favorite espresso beverage and this cappuccino cup from espresso parts would be a fitting vessel.

The Arizona Cardinals have been my favorite football team since I understood what football was, which was approximately around age six. This retro shirt, though anachronistic (the Cardinals were in St. Louis if not Chicago around the vintage this shirt imitates), is very cool.

Eckhard J. Schnabel is one of my favorite scholars, and his two volume set Early Christian Mission is a magisterial work. I feel embarrassed that it is not on my book shelf.

And as long as my library keeps on expanding, this customizable stamp would be exceedingly useful. Not only do I loan out quite a few books (many of which do not make it back to me), but my flatmates and I have a very similar book collection, largely because 3 out of the 4 of us went to the same college. Anyway, I can just picture this gorgeous fluer de lis surrounded by "from the library of M. J. Butterworth" on each title page.

So in conclusion, I would like to thank you in advance for the gift(s).

Lesslie Newbigin on Urbanization

"Urbanization is one of the most obvious symptoms of what is called modernization. Before the harnessing of electrical power and the recent developments in electronics, division and mechanization of labor required the concentration of workers in factories, and of factories in cities where goods could easily be moved from one stage of production to the next. Urbanization breaks up traditional family-based communities and introduces people to a world where there is a multiplicity of human networks, each controlled by different purposes. In traditional rural societies, each person is securely fixed in a single human milieu that embraces work, leisure, family relationships, and religion.These all form part of a given world that is accepted as real and within which the individual person has a secure and well-defined identity. In a city the individual is in the presence of multiple possibilities... And to that extent his identity is a matter for his own choice, and so for anxiety and doubt. In the milling crowds of the city, composed of individuals each pursuing goals of his or her own choice, the individual's sense of being in a world without landmarks is heightened- sometimes to the point of despair."

-Lesslie Newbigin, Foolishness to the Greeks p. 32 (1986)

Sojournings: Psalm 87

1 On the holy mount stands the city he founded;

2 the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.

3 Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God.

Selah

4 Among those who know me I mention Rahab and Babylon;

behold, Philistia and Tyre, with Cush- "This one was born there," they say.

5 And of Zion it shall be said, "This one and that one were born in her";

6 The Lord records as he registers the peoples, "This one was born there."

Selah

7 Singers and dancers alike say, "All my springs are in you."

Here is a very intriguing Psalm. It begins in verses 1-3 by celebrating Zion (Jerusalem) as the city of God. God's special presence was found in the Temple (the "holy mount") where the people of God could come to worship YHWH.

A shocking transition occurs in verses 4 and following. The Sons of Korah list a "role call of nations", including Egypt, Babylon, and Philistia: all major enemies from Israel's history. Instead of the anticipated imprecatory judgement usually reserved for the enemies of God (cf. Psalm 58; Psalm 137), these nations are said to be recipients of the blessing of God!

In The Mission of God, Christopher J. H. Wright comments,

"The expectation clearly is that 'Zion' will ultimately come to include not just native-born Israelites but people of other nations who will be adopted and enfranchised as citizens if the city, with as much right as the native born to be registered there by YHWH." (490)

I found the following sentence especially shocking:

"Significantly, YHWH is here also named Elyon (v. 5), the original name of the God of Jerusalem, with strong connections to Abraham (Gen. 14:18-20)."

It's an amazing picture: the enemies of God being being given the privilege of gathering to worship him. More so, YHWH, God's special covenantal name, is also made known as the more general "Elyon". This more general word for God, often translated "most high", is used concerning Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18-19) and by Balaam (Numbers 24:16).

For me this about settles contextualization issues concerning what word to use for "God" in other religious contexts (an issue I have been musing about for several years now). The God of Israel is the God who adopts people from all nations- even those who are his enemies. Ultimately any human word is insufficient to communicate the infinite glory and holiness of God. But we see in this passage that God takes our flawed words and ideas and reinterprets/recapitulates them: ultimately in the work of Jesus Christ.

Verse 7 gets it right: this is cause for singing and dancing!

I Choose the City

I CHOOSE THE CITY
by Francis DuBose

I choose the city...
Not simply to live in it,
to see it,
to hear it;
But to touch it;
yes, to embrace it,
to hold it,

To feel the wild glory of its
pulsating soul,

To move over its wide,
hurried broadways,

To stand stilled and sobered
at the nowhere of its dead-end streets,

To be trapped with it in its
pain and problems,

To be at once chilled by its ill
and covered with its confetti.

I choose the city because I choose God,
Because I choose humanity,
Because I choose the divine-human
struggle--

The struggle which will be won
Not in the serene path through
meadow and wood,
among the bees and birds, and flowers,

But in the city street
Made by the hand of man
Through the gift of God--
Main Street: the final battle field,
The scene of the ultimate struggle,
Where man chooses right
Because he is free to choose wrong.

Babylon, dirty and daring--
Babylon, yes--
Babylon today--

Tomorrow...
The New Jerusalem!

Francis DuBose, Mystic on Main Street, Chapel Hill, NC: Professional Press, 1993, pp. 78, 79.