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Say it aint so

SPOILER ALERT. Some thoughts on last night’s episode. I’ve followed Sun and Jin’s story w/ fascination, as a Korean couple featured on American television. Although the characters weren’t Korean-American per se, there was something deeply familiar about them, let alone the fact that Kim Yun-jin went to high school close by me and I knew her older sister in college. And I think Daniel Dae Kim is a fellow east coaster from the area. So as corny as it sounds, I see myself in these guys (and of course I had to pull my wife close this morning and say, “I will never leave you again”). So I’m really hoping that for the two of them they continue to find excellent roles in American media, and don’t become too narrowly typecast. I think it would upset me greatly if I see Jin in an action kung-fu flick after this. And I know Kim Yun-jin has it made in Korea, but I hope she continues to blaze a trail for us Korean-Americans in American mainstream media – so as to reverse the whole “racebending” shenanigans.

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So I’m in San Jose taking a class on the “Theology of the Covenant” denomination towards my hopeful and forthcoming ordination w/ the same. There are numerous reasons I seriously love this denomination and as I ruminate on this stuff I’ll post one by one why I love this group and their distinctives. The first is RELATIONSHIP - while this is an easy cliche to fall back on, allow me to illustrate. I just now met a pastor who planted a Church w/ the PC USA in Tampa, Florida who is now coming into the ECC denom. From our convo we connected our three degrees of separation on both coasts, north and south, people we mutually know that somehow makes us more connected despite just having met. It was a great feeling of familiarity and fellowship. So without talking too much more about our distinctives, I will say that the ideas of fellowship and friendship are granted m0re weight in the ECC than just passing cliches.

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Fresh from finishing my last full semester on campus @ Regent (Vancouver, not Virginia) I’m still at it, thinking theologically, working thru it, and applying it – this time for an upcoming ordination class. So I’m enjoying the continued mental exercise – this time on the issue of women in ministry. The ECC takes an egalitarian stance on it – this is my take. Read more…

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Hang on folks, I’m not depressed; I’m ok.

But someone out there might be. And you might even be a Christian, and yet baffled that you are experiencing this. I know first-hand that crazy feeling; the baffling “why am I, a Christian, going through these feelings, this experience?” And yet having climbed out of that depth several times in my life, I have yet to think theologically about it; i mean who would? But this stream-of-thought spurred on by a reading in Hans Urs Von Balthasar has caused me to realize the theological significance of the private hell we go through when depressed – it is an identification with the passion of the Christ; and this, hinted by Balthasar, is what is happening. Essentially the passion of God on a cross is incarnated in us. See if any shrink will tell you that. Here is the original snippet from Balthasar, The Word Made Flesh, pp. 199-200 (rather than cut and paste, I’m actually typing it out – it’s that good – to get it into my noggin): Read more…

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Weekend fun: OK, I know this is crude – and for that I apologize. But this was too good to let pass; I don’t have the proper energy to parse those words at this point in the semester but somehow I don’t think the Greek properly reads “I belong to the god and it bless me”. Somebody got a translation?

h/t absolutelyfobulous.com

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I understand this book (Henri Nouwen’s Creative Ministry) in the context of the developing pastoral theologies in the latter half of the 20^th century; and can place some of the socio-philosophical (and especially psychological) context from which Nouwen is writing. I was even surprised to find a slight liberationist bent in his words, “Should I remain nonviolent at all cost, or is there a time when violence might be the only ethical response?” Overall however, I find most important his central critique of “professionalism” in ministry, the disillusionment the minister experiences when our profession is placed side by side with the other helping professions, just another facet of the overall human care system. Such commoditization is perhaps what is at the root of the problem, not to mention in the current U.S. health care debates. We ministers do not want to be seen as just another commodity, just another white coat. There is something unique to what we do, transcendent, and yet we are often relegated to just another specialization. In this sense I think what Nouwen is saying here has special relevance not just for the local minister, but for the chaplain as well. Read more…

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I regularly get updates from Bob Ekblad, who teaches several Regent classes off-site, in Skagit Valley, WA. His work amongst undocumented workers is cutting-edge and I’ve seen it in action first-hand. He sends out this appeal on behalf of a Mexican pastor who was residing in NW Washington until ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement) picked him up – and he now faces deportation and the end of (a good) life as he’s known it for the past 15 yrs. His is a case merit-worthy of petition – keep reading and sign it. I did. Read more…

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I’m going to attempt a synthesis here, stated concisely. Simply put, this discussion on Nouvelle Theologie and Sacramentalism can be understood one of two ways:

a) a return to superstition

b) a recovery of imagination, meaning, the reality of the divine, and the over-used word, mystery

Despite my stated qualms, I’ve said that the debate is helpful. Here’s how:

You climb into the warm recliner, sitting across from a man with a pad. You pour out your gut-feelings, the angst, while he scribbles away furiously. He asks you about your mother, and you talk about your childhood. After an hour of listening he begins to repeat back to you what you have said, weaving a tapestry of insightful council of how repressed desires have finally made their way into aberrant behavior; the prescription? A talking cure, and the need to re-assess your formation as an adult in light of your past. You might need some medication. You thank your pastor on the way out.

So my question is: is this distinctly pastoral ministry?

The appropriation of secular methodology has essentially sent the message that we’ve lost faith in the mediating symbols of the Church to affect grace, comfort, healing. For what is distinctly pastoral: to offer psychological advice (for which we are not trained), or to draw back upon the counselee’s union w/ Christ via baptism? To come back to the place where the congregant finds his / her belonging to God via sacramental union – in other words, Communion? (I’m taking Purves‘ lead here – and I think he’s dead-on).

Another application: how can we talk about God’s design in a parishioner’s life when there is no overall design? In a word, “Providence” is crippled when the universe is emptied of mystical significance. From where I stand, that is one of the most important concepts in a pastor’s toolbox; we have to believe there is meaning to what happens in people’s lives.

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Fresh from the sacramentalism brouhaha, I found a friend asking the above question. While I have some thoughts, I’m more concerned for the outworking of all this sacrament talk. Maybe this is one of the places where it plays out in practice; if Protestants are re-opening the conversation on sacraments, how then does that play out in the mission of the church? In particular, opening or closing communion?

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Here’s a little end-of-week humor.

Lord knows I need it. And no, “Amajing” is not a typo, it’s the intentional inflection of a Korean accent, and that’s ok, because I’m Korean. Having said that, I know the cartoon below contains some stereotypes and maybe even gaffes, but twasn’t meant maliciously by the Korean (unnamed) cartoonist. Here it is. My favorite is the before / after of the dude second from the left. Tell me what you think.

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