Cities skylines

I don't particularly enjoy most computer games. I don't enjoy games which involve hand-eye coordination. When I played Pac-Man in my teens, those stupid ghosts always got me. I prefer games that move at a slower pace, and involve simulated action. I enjoy sports management games, which involve strategy and finances and putting a team together, and seeing how your plans bear fruit.

In that same genre I truly enjoy city builder games as well. I remember playing SimCity fondly, with its ability to show how much damage a small godzilla attack can create. Because of these fond memories I purchased the newly released city builder game from Paradox Interactive, Cities Skylines. (Full disclosure my brother works at Paradox.)

I have only played a few hours but already I am enjoying the game play. The graphics are unbelievable in their detail, and the menus are super helpful. The goal is to progress along to certain milestone as you grow your city from hamlet to village to town to metropolis. As with most of these sorts of games, the main temptation to always to build too fast. This overwhelms your infrastructure and leads to all sorts of problems. Through trial and error, you realize what needs to be done. (Like don't put your water tower in an industrial zone! The citizens don't like brown water.)

One of more interesting, fun and sometimes unbelievably frustrating aspects of the game is how to deal with traffic. I am sure it is a problem real life city planners face. You build a city area, which is suitably served by normal roads, but then as the city grows the traffic becomes a nightmare. Then you need to figure out a plan to fix it, which often involves a lot of demolition to build wider roads, roundabouts, off-ramps, etc. I am still trying to get the hang of dealing with traffic, and if things don't work (which happens to me a lot), you re-load the city and start again. And the traffic nightmares lead to other problems. The trash is not picked up efficiently so it piles up. When someone dies they cannot be taken to the cemetery quickly so the neighbours complain. And the fire department has trouble answering calls.

The game is good about telling you what the problems are, and you get a lot of good game play out of trying to fix things. I look forward to many hours of fun, as I try, once more, to solve the traffic nightmare that is downtown Michaeltown!

My listening list for Holy Week

With Holy Week coming upon us I thought I would share what music would be most prominent in my study during this time.

Penderecki, St. Luke Passion

Beethoven, Christ on the Mount of Olives

Haydn, Die Sieben Letzen Worte (Oratorio version)

Haydn, Die Sieben Letzen Worte (fortepiano version)

Haydn, Stabat Mater

Bach, St. Matthew Passion (2 versions)

Bach, St. John Passion (2 versions)

Handel, Brockes Passion

Handel, St. John Passion

Some all time classics.

Our Delightful Duty

I read the Bible a lot. As a minister, that should probably be expected. But sometimes I ask myself the question, how am I reading God's Word? What do I receive for my time in the Bible?

These questions have become real to me as I have been reading David Saxton's book, God's Battle Plan for the Mind: The Puritan Practice of Biblical Meditation. This book is a map to what the Puritans have written about the Biblical meditation, which is quite a dense topic. And while reading this book I have come to a few realizations about my own Bible reading that I would like to share over the next few days.

First, I have to tell myself that daily Bible reading and meditation is not the same thing as sermon preparation. This is not to say that my daily Bible reading plays no role as I go to the study to prepare the week's message. Thinking and applying the Bible to situations each day, what the Puritans call 'occasional meditation,' is valuable in providing illustrations for a sermon. For example, when I see a beautiful sunrise, I can think to myself the opening words of Psalm 19, "The heavens declare the glory of God..." Such moments are important for the work of writing and preaching sermons.

But Bible reading each day is not about trying to find nuggets to preach about. One of my problems is that I try to figure out how to preach each passage I read. And while a valuable exercise, Saxton tells us that Biblical meditation should be about letting God's word get into your mind, and your heart. The question I often ask is "What can I do with this passage?" The meditation question should be, "What does this passage do to you?" And it leads us to meditate on things that can be difficult. Sin and holiness. Sexual sin and marriage. Death and life. It involves looking past ourselves to what God is saying through this passage. As Saxton writes,

Without a return to the delightful duty of biblical meditation, the believer will continue to handle God’s Word merely intellectually. (location 99, Kindle)

Delightful duty...what a beautiful way to describe our time God's word.  This book is telling me to get past my brain and to open up my whole self to God, his Spirit and his Word. Get past using the Bible as the text-book for preaching, and embrace it wholeheartedly as God's Word, now and always.

 

Pulpit freedom?

Thomas Oden, in his book Requiem: a lament in three movements, describes a Holy Communion service which he left. It was a service dedicated to Sophia as goddess. When discussing ministerial freedom he has this is add:

The overriding issue has to do with the reifying of the idea of sophia into a goddess acceptable to neopagan feminists who want to remain vaguely within the Christian community, but only on terms unacceptable to the apostolic tradition. (Oden, Requiem, p.150).

This post is not about the acceptability of Sophia worship, or the countless liturgical innovations that one can see. I don't want to get started about the merits of liturgical dance, Christian puppet shows, Clown ministry or U2charist. I want to focus on Oden's last words above. Those "who want to remain vaguely within the Christian community, but only on terms unacceptable to the apostolic tradition." These words come back to be because of the expressly related atheist views of Christian ministers in many denominations, including the United Church of Canada.

As a creedal Christian (explained in a previous post), I am a swirl of emotions regarding such things.

I am angry. Angry that such a thing is possible in the church. Angry that it receives so much attention when it does. But anger doesn't help.

I am frustrated. Frustrated that  the word "Christian" can have so little meaning. Frustrated that my own disapproval of an atheist Christian minister turns me into the intolerant one. Frustrated that my ministerial colleagues start conversations by saying, "Oh, he not that type of United Church minster." Frustrated that my congregation is caught wondering "What's all this about?" But frustration is a never-ending cycle that just leads nowhere.

I am saddened. Saddened that this is the public face of the United Church. Saddened that silence has become the best policy. Saddened that someway, somehow the message of good news has been lost in a maze of post-modern definitions that make God's word meaningless. But we are not called to be people of sadness...


So as someone who holds to the apostolic tradition, I have to be hopeful. I have hope that the good news of Christ's salvific work will remain strong. I have hope that the gospel will be preached. I have hope that the message will increase, not in grand showy ways that draw headlines, but in ways that change lives. Today, I cling to the hope.

Most helpful commentaries on the Gospel of John

I am coming to the end of a sermon series on portions of the Gospel of John. I thought today I would share which commentaries have been the most helpful to me during my study time.

For those who use the original languages, pride of place on the Greek text goes to C.K. Barrett, Gospel According to St. John. While somewhat dated in its bibliography, it remains critical without being skeptical. Barrett has a good sense of the theological continuity in the gospel, and his writing is so precise. He packs a lot into a small space.

For sheer information, Craig Keener's 2 volume, 1600 page Gospel of John is mind boggling. Keener delves into history and culture and doing so provides the framework for the narrative of the gospel. There is a lot of food for thought here. The main problem with Keener is that the amount of information can overwhelm the pastor short on time.

In theology, I recommend the work of Herman Ridderbos, The Gospel of John: A Theological Commentary. Ridderbos is an exceptional Dutch Reformed theologian, and his work is always worth a look. Even if you do not agree with Ridderbos' Calvinism, there is much in the commentary that will benefit your study.

As far as more traditional commentaries I would give top marks to Andrew Lincoln in the Black's New Testament Commentary series, as well as D.A. Carson in the Pillar series. Both of these series are almost entirely filled with well written commentaries. Carson is by far the evangelical first choice, showing that biblical scholarship and evangelical belief are not antithetical. Lincoln is moderately critical, with a dim view of the historicity of the gospel's stories. But even so Lincoln provides depth and insight. Reading these commentaries together will provide a range of scholarship in the Gospels, and open your eyes to possibilities.

So with these choices, any study of John will be off on the right track. Listen to my sermons in this series here.

Happy birthday, Bach (Old Style)

I have been reminded this week that today is the birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). Bach is the quintessential Baroque composer, and to me is the greatest musical mind in the history of the Western world. Many times as I sit and read, or as I prepare my sermons, the music of Bach fills the air of my study.

So much of Bach's music is well known. At this time of year, the strains of his St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion are heard as we prepare for Good Friday. The beauty of the Mass in B minor is almost unparalleled in music history. I became intrigued with Bach during seminary, while seeing to our school music director's joy at playing Bach's organ works. So I provide a couple of my own favorite pieces of music from the Bach library, which takes up a 155 CD box set in my study.

I begin with a vocal work, the Ascension Oratorio BWV 11. While not having the grand sweep of the Passions, this half-hour work provides a wondrous celebration of what it meant for the disciples that day when Jesus departed. The uncertainty, the hopelessness and the sheer wonder of what is going on echo through the work.


When it comes to Bach's instrumental works, I am a big fan of his masterful cello suites. He produced six of these works for unaccompanied cello. The works are haunting and reach deep into the soul. The sound of a cello is very distinctive, and these pieces are incredible.Here is a link to Pablo Casals playing suite No. 4 in E-flat major. LINK

So today, I will listen to some Bach, and celebrate his wonderful gift to us. Maybe first a cello suite...

I used to believe THAT

These days my more personal reading has been spent in the poetry of Robert Southey (1774-1843). He was a Romantic-era poet, friend to Wordsworth and Coleridge. He was British Poet Laureate from 1813 to 1843. While his poetry is not to the level of others in that era, it is a pleasant diversion from the heavier reading I usually do.

I am currently reading his poetic drama, Wat Tyler, completed in 1794. It tells the story of Wat Tyler's 1381 rebellion against King Richard II over the imposition of a poll tax. It was a radical anti-government work, which showed Southey's sympathy for the work of the French Revolution. But Southey's politics change over time. He becomes more conservative, and he is ultimately placed in the court position of Poet Laureate. But the publication of Wat Tyler was used against him in many ways. In fact the play was published surreptitiously in 1817.  His critics were trying to embarrass him. He was accused of betraying his radical roots, or of selling out his ideals for titles and respectability. Southey answered his critics admirably, but could never shake the impression that he was a hypocrite and a sell-out.

While the famous of today often find themselves in the same position as Southey, having to defend themselves for views long forgotten, I ask myself what in my own history would I disavow today. When I read or listen to sermons I have preached, I find myself shaking my head. (I am glad that for an eight year period, no text or recording of my sermons exist. They exist only in the memories of the audience that day.) But I think about how I have changed. My theology has changed. My politics have changed. Am I embarrassed by who I used to be? Sometimes, yes. But always I realize the path of my life has led me here. And will lead me on, probably to more changes in my theology and my politics. And I think I mostly OK with that.