2020 Reading List

 

The Theology of the Cross, by H. Sasse (in We Confess Jesus Christ)

Richest Man in Babylon, by G. Clason

A Christian Guide to Mental Illness, volume 1, by S. Saunders

Time at the lake during summer:
        Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, by M. Sidney
        Shadow Among Sheaves, by N. Stephens
        The Alto Wore Tweed, by M. Schweizer

Autumn:
        Mamma's Boarding House, by J.D. Fitzgerald 

Proofreading review of 
        Lutheran Catechesis, Catechist Edition

2018-19 Reading List

2018
33 Going on Girlfriend, by Monson -- January 3
34 Going on Bride, by Monson -- May 27

He Remembers the Barren, by Schuermann -- Jan 15
Bringing the Oxford Tutorial to Your High School or Middle School Student, by R. Paul -- May 28



2019
audio books between here and Minneapolis:

    A Year Down Yonder, by Peck

    Around the World in 80 Days

    some Narnia

rereads:

    House of Living Stones

    The Choir Immortal

    and probably some others I forgot

How to Write a Hymn

Praying Psalm 135 this morning, I kept being distracted by the lines lifted from elsewhere in Scripture.

• Verse 1 comes from Psalm 113.
• Verse 5 comes from Psalm 95.
• Verse 13 comes from Psalm 72.
• Verse 14 comes from Deut 32.
• Verses 15-18 repeat a section of Psalm 115.
• Verses 19-20 are a slight twist on a section of Psalm 118.

And that list doesn’t even include the other lines that I know show up in other biblical hymns but for which my memory doesn’t have a ready-reference of the citation ... nor does this list include the other places these lines appear.

The most important thing in hymn-writing is not to have some theological acumen plus some writing ability.  The most important thing is to be steeped in God’s word, to have His hymns and His stories and His catechism so deeply entrenched in your soul and your mind that His Word (not yours) spills out whenever your mouth or pen gets to movin’.

Cleaving

"Cleaving" is like "flammable."  It can mean the opposite of itself.

Sometimes cleaving means clinging, hanging on, being right there, attached.
Sometimes cleaving means splitting or cutting or dividing.

Someone blogged recently about cloves of garlic, and discovering the difference between a "head" and a "clove."  So I asked Maggie if she knew the difference.  And it got me to thinking: why is a clove called a clove?

"Clove" is past tense of "cleave."

A cloven hoof is a hoof with two parts.  One part that's split into two, but not really two, because it's still one hoof.

Even when we use the word "cleave" to mean "split," it still indicates the closeness of what was being split, such as the bow of the ship cleaving the waves.

(This sheds some light on marriage.  "A man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one."  They're one.  But they're not.  They're two parts of one.  So they're one.)

Back to the garlic.  One head.  Eight or nine cloves.  The cloves can be separated.  So they're their own thing.  But they're not.  They're joined in the one head of garlic.

Once upon a time, I was scolded for falling into a "basic meaning fallacy."  The longer I live, the more I discover that "basic meaning" really does explain connections almost all the time.  It's not a fallacy.  It's usually enlightening and fun to figure out.

Moses

We always think of Moses as the Law-giver.  It's true.  The law did come to us from God through Moses.  But what else did Moses do?

He was a savior to the people.
He was a deliverer.
He interceded for them when the Lord said He should wipe 'em out because of their rebellion.

That's not law.
That's mercy.
That's rescue.

And all of that (the law and the rescue) is why Jesus is the prophet greater than Moses (Acts 3:22).

Healing the Lame Man

Peter and John got themselves arrested when they healed the paralytic (Acts 3) and preached to the people about the forgiveness of sins.  It seems the religious establishment was not fond of this message.

Funny.  Same thing happened to Jesus when He healed a lame man and preached the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 9). 

Christian "Culture" in Different Lands

Sometimes we look at the way Christians worship in other lands and think, "That's African Christian culture" or "That's Indian Christian culture" or "That's middle-Eastern Christian culture."  We think it's different from "American Christian culture."

Why?

Christianity is counter-cultural.  It doesn't fit in American society or African society or European society or any other society.  The Church is its own oddball thing.  There was a reason St Peter called us a "peculiar people."  The Church forgives people who don't deserve forgiveness.  The Church calls people to repent of their selfish desires, and not just the crass selfishness but even the selfishness which is extolled by the world.  Using His words and His rites, the Church worships a God who humiliated Himself.  What kind of weirdness is all this? 

This isn't popular in any culture.

When Pentecostal ideas infiltrate the Church, (even though part of the message is still about Christ's mercy toward sinners) too much of the teaching is about us and how we make decisions for God and how we follow Him.  The worship becomes more about our feelings for God than about His action for us.   It doesn't matter whether the congregation is in American suburbia or African villages, Pentecostal doctrine (even in Lutheran churches) manifests itself with certain worship styles. 

Why do Missouri-Synod Lutherans think that the doctrine and worship they hold dear is "American"?  Or "German"?  Why do we not recognize it simply as Christian?

Is it because we did pollute the Church's doctrine in past decades with viewpoints that were uniquely American?

Is it because we did, in our mission work in the past century, export lousy doctrine to other lands?

Is it because of "white guilt" and arrogance, thinking that whatever we have known is thus "ours," ... and not wanting to impose our culture on another people?  That would be a good attitude IF our worship and doctrine were "ours."  But it's not.  It belongs to the Lord.  And He wants us and people in other lands to be blessed by His word, His doctrine, His worship.

Stodgy old Lutherans do not want to make other people to be "like ourselves."  We want for others (and for ourselves!) to be made like Christ, to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering.

What Do You Guard?

You cut your finger while making dinner.  It hurts.  For the next few days, you turn the doorknobs and brush your teeth with the sore finger extended, guarding it from bumps and effort, protecting it from further harm.

But what happens if you break some bones in the other hand?  Suddenly hand with the cut finger is the one that takes the hits, so as to protect the worse-off hand.

Another example: A migraine has the guy flat on the couch, aching.  He thinks he can't handle anything.  But if the house goes up in flames, he's up and out the door.  Was the migraine imaginary?  Of course not.  It was debilitating.  But the pain of getting out had to be endured to, well, get out and rescue the body.



Ephesians 5: "No one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cares for it, as the Lord does the church." 

Jesus went willingly to the cross.  Just as I would suffer pain in my body while protecting my body from worse damage, Christ suffered in His body because it was a higher priority to protect His body, the Church.

A Mighty God

In the Reproaches on Good Friday, we pray, "Holy and mighty God."

On Good Friday. 
When God hangs on a cross, dying.

Mighty God.

Such words are ludicrous to the world.
It may even look paradoxical to many Christians.

But yes, we mean it: mighty God.

It is precisely in His death where His might and glory are seen,
where sin, death, and Satan are defeated by His atonement.

Fresh Abreva

Abreva heals cold sores.

A person who gets cold sores the size of Rhode Island may think that she's built up a resistance to the medicine.  Or she may think that she remembered incorrectly about how much the Abreva helped in the past.

The reality is that the expiration date on the tube of Abreva is important.  If your Pepsi or your aspirin or your canned tuna is past the expiration date (within reason), no biggie.  But if your Abreva is nearing (or past) the expiration date, it won't be effective.  I know, I know how pricey those tiny tubes of medicine are.  But fresh Abreva works wonders.

Jesus and Paul

Jesus tells us (in Luke 24) that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name.  Luke's gospel tells us about Christ's death and resurrection.  Luke's sequel [Acts] tells us about the preaching part. 

As we read through Acts, we see many similarities in stories between Jesus and Paul.  They were both opposed by the Jews.  They both did miracles.  They both traveled around, preaching and forgiving sin, beginning in the synagogue.  They were both arrested when innocent.  But Paul does not die.  (Well, yes, he died.  Eventually.  But that's not recorded in Acts.)

And that's because only Christ's death counts for our salvation.

Towels

My dad came from a large family.  When the family got together for Christmas at my grandma's house, it would be 40-50 people.  Kids exchanged names for gift-giving.  Teens and adults exchanged names. But Grandma's plan was to get a bunch of the same thing for everybody.  One year she bought gobs of mittens and let all the kids choose a color.  For several years, the adult-gift was towels.  She bought lots of towels.  Everybody could pick.  Somehow Gary and I ended up with oddball colors that would never go with the color of our bathroom or with our other towels. 

Our current towel stash still has some towels that we each bought when we went away to college.  That would not be a big deal if I were in my 20s.  But I am not. 

Our current towel stash still has some towels that we received as wedding gifts, towels that were seldom used because they were in odd colors. 

Our current towel stash has some nearly new towels (again, in colors that don't match) because of distributing the contents of deceased parents' homes. 

This week I pulled towels out of the bathroom for the laundry, but washed only some before needing fresh towels for showers.  Somehow, a pair of color-coordinated towels ended up in the bathroom.  The towels matched each other and matched the color-scheme of the bathroom.  It looked nice.  It makes me want to go out and buy color-coordinated towels -- just for pretties -- just for fun. 


And yet, I can't do it quite yet.  I don't like the color of our bathrooms.  (The previous owners choose a Packer-theme for the bathrooms.)  When we paint and maybe even replace the flooring, then I will waste money on something that looks nice, just for the sake of enjoying the calm of having something coordinated and pretty.  That's going to be a big step in embracing beauty and fighting over-frugality.  But who knows how long until a bathroom color-remodel can be tackled?

2017 Reading List

Christ for Us, by Preus -- fifth re-read in April 2017 (following book layout)
Pioneer Girl: The Annotatated Autobiography -- May 3.
The Boys Who Challenged Hitler, by Pedersen -- July 4.
The Pastor's Wife, by Wurmbrand -- August.
The Fire and the Staff, by Preus -- October.

Dust in the Glass, by Gehlbach-Stemm -- May 16.
House of Living Stones, by Schuermann -- May 27.
The Choir Immortal, by Schuermann -- May 30.
The Harvest Raise, by Schuermann -- December 19.
The Kingdom of the Birds, by Demuth-Lutze -- June 17.
32 Going on Spinster, by Monson -- August 15.




Pioneer Girl was hard.  It took me two years to read, what with all those footnotes.

There was a lot more fiction and fun escapist reading this year.

2016 Reading Lists

Ivan Denisovich, by Solzhenitsyn -- July 29.

Mothering Many, by MacPherson -- August 13.
Every Woman's Guide to Foot Pain Relief, by Bowman -- August 19.
Christ for Us, by Preus -- three more re-reads 

Audio book:

Around the World in 80 Days, by Verne [Jim Dale] -- August 24.   


My 2015 reading list was affected by Mom's hospitalization and death.  The 2016 reading list was on "pause" for the same reason.  In late spring I started reading again, but when I resumed Pioneer Girl, it was long and difficult and wasn't finished in 2016.  Then in fall, my reading again disappeared because of putting in long hours in the church office.  

Other people's reading lists demonstrate what kind of interesting ideas they're putting into their minds.  My reading list demonstrates when I'm distracted by non-reading tasks.

2015 Reading List

How to Respond to Eastern Religions -- finished Jan 7
Crunchy Cons, by Dreher -- finished Jan 13
Holy Housewifery -- finished Jan 17
Wild Swans, by Chang  -- finished Feb 25
Light in the Dark Belt: Story of Rosa Young -- March 7
Heidelberg Disputation -- finished April 2  
On Being a Theologian of the Cross, by Forde -- April 13
Broken: 7 "Christian" Rules ... to Break-- May 1
Let's Roll, by Beamer-- finished May 4
Christ for Us, by Preus -- finished Sept 25
Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good, by Karon -- March 30

Re-reads:
Narnia
~ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe -- May 17
~ Prince Caspian -- June 23
~ Horse and His Boy -- finished April 16 [audio]
~ Magician's Nephew -- finished May 12 [audio] 

With Maggie:
Anne of Ingleside -- finished Jan 16
Penderwicks -- finished Feb 24

Looking at this list, it's very apparent to me when Mom fell and died.

God's Liturgy

When you're tempted to think that the liturgy isn't important, remember that contemporary worship was why Judah and Israel were destroyed.

Quote from Bible class on Hebrews

A Fresh Calendar Page

When I turned the calendar over to October, the page was nearly blank.  Two long doctor appointments for the girls, and a weekend for Gary and Andrew to go off together.  That's it.  Oh, sure, there's the regular: choir and Bible class and making supper.  But that goes without saying.  The calendar is emptier than I've seen in ages.


I knew months ago that September would be a bit stressful because five days were blocked out before anything else even began.  But as we got into the month, things snowballed.
10 days: three out-of-state trips.
5 days: secretarial work at church.
1 day: out-of-town company here.
1 day: a conference.
3 days: computer died and had to be replaced.

That's 20 days.  No wonder the house is dirty and I feel like it's been too long since I cooked-for-real.  But still, look at some of the good  stuff!

October looks restorative.  A month with only two days blocked off -- it's beautiful!

Fingers are crossed that Mr Murphy doesn't get wind of this and decide to "fix" the situation.

Right to Die?

It's one thing to sit in the living room and debate living wills, assisted suicide, and medical treatment at the end of life.

It's one thing to recognize that medical technology can extend life when it ought not do so.

But how do we avoid "assisted suicide" (aka, murder) while also avoiding unnecessarily prolonging the life of someone who is suffering and dying?  Sometimes it's very hard for those who value life to make sense of when to stop providing life-prolonging treatment for a loved one.

Lutherans for Life has a page about "advance directives."  One statement is especially helpful:

The problem we see in the so-called "right to die" movement is that there is a shift in the discussion.  Instead of discussing whether a treatment is excessively burdensome to a person -- that is, whether it is doing more harm than good -- more and more people are discussing whether the person is a burden.  They advocate removing or stopping treatment with the intent of killing the person.

That's the crux of it.
Is the treatment excessively burdensome to the patient?
Or is the patient a burden to the caregivers and society?

Furthermore, "burdensome to the patient" is not about quality of life so much as it is about whether the treatment "does more harm than good."

Asian Spaghetti-and-Meatballs

I've been too busy to cook.  The last months have been insta-food, burgers, pizza, and even [gasp] eating out at restaurants.  I did it again today: I stayed at church far too long working and then rushed home to drive Mag to work and do some errands.  And then it would be time to eat -- boom.  Having eaten way too many hamburgers recently, I snatched up some Aldi ground turkey for a variation on our burgers.  My brain was thinking I might throw in some grated onion, carrot, and celery with a teriyaki sauce for the burgers.

Problem 1:  Teriyaki sauce was gone and I had to whip up my own sauce.
Problem 2:  We're nearly out of bread.  The grain would have to be noodles or rice.
Solution:  Get creative.  Besides, I hadn't had the fun of cooking creatively for months.  Pad Thai was the starting point.

Cut veggies:
about 5-6 cups slivered cabbage
about 1 cup julienned carrot
about 1 cup slivered onion
(Slaw mix with some onion would work nicely, if you have it.)

Meatballs:
1.5# ground turkey
lime juice
cilantro
2 eggs
1/4 sesame seeds
1/4 cup flour or fine bread crumbs
extra flavor: garlic, onion, chili powder, pepper, salt

Stir-fry the veggies.  I used a blend of coconut oil, olive oil, and sesame oil.  Remove from skillet and set aside.

Set a large pot of water to boil.
Start frying the meatballs in the skillet.
(Option: bake meatballs in the oven instead of cooking them in the skillet.)
Mix up a sauce of  soy sauce, lime juice, brown sugar, pineapple juice, chili-garlic paste, and garlic.
When meatballs are done, remove from skillet.  Pour sauce into skillet and use whisk to loosen meat-bits.  Return veggies to skillet and simmer for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook in the boiling water:
8 oz dry spaghetti, broken into 2" lengths
Drain.

Add pasta to the veggies and sauce.  Mix well.  Top with meatballs.


When Gary asked what I was making for supper, I told him what I was inventing.  He put on a brave face.  I was a bit leery too.  But I liked it.  As for my poor guinea pig of a husband, after a few bites, he declared, "Hey, this is pretty good!"  Success!

The Loss of Patience

Once upon a time, a homeschool mommy had to decide on curriculum in May.  June at the latest. You had to place your order by 4th of July to be certain of having your books by late August or Labor Day.  With Amazon Prime now, people don't want to wait a week for an order to arrive.

Once upon a time, there were no answering machines.  If you phoned someone who was on vacation, they didn't answer, and you couldn't leave a message.  And you certainly couldn't call them where they were.  You waited until they came home to ask your question.  Now we tend to freak out if someone hasn't responded in 10 or 15 minutes.

Once upon a time, people had to go to the bank.  And they had to do it during "bankers' hours."  No direct deposit.  No ATMs.  No taking a picture of a check to deposit it via your Smartphone.

Once upon a time, you paid the doctor yourself and filled out the paperwork to be reimbursed someday by the insurance company.

Once upon a time, when you wanted to watch TV, you had to turn on the set and allow it to warm up for 3-5 minutes before you could get sound and a picture.

People today seem impatient.  People don't want to stop at red lights.  People don't want to wait in lines.  People don't recognize that political or economic policy-changes take a while before they have an effect.  People drive up to a window, hand over some cash, and expect a bag of dinner to be presented to them in less than two minutes.  People think that the doctor should be able to provide a pill or treatment that will improve the problem in a matter of a few hours and cure it within a couple of days.

We used to have all sorts of little, inconsequential, unimportant matters in which to practice patience.  Technology has erased many of those things.  (And it sure is nice to be able to talk easily and cheaply with someone who lives a continent away.)  But technology has also made us extremely impatient with the concept of patience.