Update, Weather Report, Joke

Woah! What a packed month this has been already. Besides having playoff baseball becoming a detriment to my academic life, I've begun to realize that the last week of this month will be the busiest and most stressful of grad school to date. Yikes.

But yeah, classes are going good and tough, I have tests this week and next, with papers due the end of the month. I think I know what I'm doing for Thanksgiving break, but we'll see what happens. I was able to have dinner with a couple friends from home; authentic Italian pizza joined with authentic Christian fellowship and community. Now that's a recipe I can star.

One of my theology textbooks I've been reading this weekend posed the question, "What if Jesus had died of a heart attack in the Garden of Gethsemane and the disciples then laid him in the tomb? Would there still have been the resurrection? And assuming that he would have been raised from the dead, would there have been atonement? Could we still say that he died for our sins?" (The Soul of Ministry, Anderson, paraphrased). These questions were posed by the author to his graduate level theology class. If I were in that class, I think I would have responded that absolutely, there would be a resurrection. Without God bringing God's self (in the form of Jesus) back to (human) life, what would Jesus have been? Simply a prophet or healer, a chosen one at best. But no, with Jesus being the Son of God, being one with the Father God, the resurrection was a necessity; it still is the necessity. As for the atonement of our sins, Jesus' death can still be seen as the result of human frailty, whether on the cross or gripping his chest. The Cross is the more powerful image, with Jesus' death being the direct result of human frailty of mind, will, and body. However, the heart attack scenario is simply due to the frailty of human body. It lacks the power, the responsibility (perhaps one could go so far to say, it lacks the guilt) of the crucifixion. But again we are reminded, as the author's students reminded him and the class, Jesus' death is important insofar as God Incarnate died a human death, but the salvific part of the story, the real essence of the crucifixion, is in the resurrection. The student mentioned above said this: "It was the resurrection that counted, anyway. Without a resurrection there would be no atonement, even if he died on the cross." The author responded, "Amazing! ... It is the resurrection of Jesus, not just his death on the cross, that completed the atonement. ... The reason for this is that it is not just sin that needs to be forgiven, but death that needs to be overcome." Interesting, to be sure. How it relates to ministry with youth, well, we'll see about that in class discussion tomorrow.

In other news, it snowed this weekend. Just a light dusting Saturday morning, but enough to make it really cold. However, it was not enough to force me to abandon my weekly frisbee game. So I bundled up and trudged down to the field for what I dubbed "Ultimate Freezebee". It was a good fun (and yes, very cold) time; all in all, well worth it.

And a joke I'm stealing from a friend of mine in Colorado (where she got it, I have no clue):

What do you get when you divide the circumference of a Jack o Lantern by its diameter???

PUMPKIN PI!!!

With that in mind, have a good week. Stay warm, stay safe, and stay with the knowledge that it is in the resurrection that God and Christ defeated death to assure Christ's followers their place with God for eternity.

Peace.