Fridays with Michael Spencer: February 10, 2017

Chicago River Bridge 2016

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Yesterday, in Louisville, at the corner of 4th and Walnut, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness. The whole illusion of a separate holy existence is a dream. Not that I question the reality of my vocation, or of my monastic life: but the conception of “separation from the world” that we have in the monastery too easily presents itself as a complete illusion….I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.

• Thomas Merton (1915-1968)

• • •

For those who don’t know, Thomas Merton was one of the most influential spiritual writers of the twentieth century. Born in France to a New Zealander father and an American mother, Merton grew up in England, converted from atheism to Catholicism, and eventually came to America to attend Columbia University. In 1941 he entered the Trappist monastery of Gethsemani near Louisville, Kentucky, where he spent his life as a writer and spiritual director. Merton’s books continue to exert a strong influence on contemporary Christian spirituality.

Thomas Merton is a friend of mine. He has been endlessly helpful to me as a Christian, a minister and a human being. Many who study Merton divide his life into three “epiphanies.” The first being his conversion to Roman Catholicism and the third being his vision of a unity between Eastern and Western monastic spiritualities. It is the second- and most influential- epiphany that interests me: his famous “Walnut Street” epiphany of connectness to the world of “real” humanity, an experience that reclaimed and rebirthed a love for the world he had renounced.

I’m going to connect this experience to what’s going on in contemporary evangelical worship and what seem to be the goals of contemporary worship. In particular, I want to examine where true Christian spirituality takes us, and the disturbing contradictory currents that are being evidenced in evangelicalism today.

The “Walnut Street Experience” happened at a crucial point in Merton’s life. He had come to the monastery with the zeal of the new convert, and wanted nothing more than to fade from the surface of the earth into a life of prayer. Instead, on the orders of his superiors, he wrote an autobiography (The Seven Storey Mountain) and became a best-selling author. He was the best known Catholic in America in the 1950’s. After following up with several other books, Merton became disillusioned with his writing career and notoriety, and wanted to stop writing and resume his calling as an anonymous, contemplative monk. His superiors wouldn’t hear of it, and told him to keep writing. Merton was miserable….until he went to Louisville one day to see the dentist, and was captured by a vision of humanity and his love for and commonality with, the human race. It is one of the brightest and best paragraphs Merton ever wrote, and his joy is evident.

Gethsemani Abbey 2014

It was a transforming experience, one that all Merton lovers are grateful arrived when it did. The “Walnut Street epiphany” returned Merton to his writing, but it was not the same writer. He took off in new and daring directions, writing his most influential and appealing books; books that explored the connection between the Christian and the world of suffering, art, love, war and real living. Instead of the retreated spiritual writer, Merton became the involved political and social writer. He became “worldly,” and embraced a role as spiritual advisor to movements for peace and social justice. After moving to a private hermitage away from the monastery, Merton became a celebrity again, but this time hosting writers, poets and musicians whose names are a “who’s who?” of the sixties.

It would be easy for me to quibble with the politics of Thomas Merton, because I do not share a number of his liberal stances, and have to smile at some of the naive sixties’ sentiment that fill his pages during this period. But at the same time, I am impressed with Merton’s spiritual progress. He came to the monastery convinced that following Christ would take him out of the world, into prayer, into a separate world of Christian spirituality. The Walnut Street experience brought him back into the world, back to the place where involvement and service to people was a clear expression of love for God.

In his early years as a convert, Merton had worked in Harlem with a Catholic ministry to the poor. Merton considered this as a vocation, and then later considered life in a Franciscan lay order that would have allowed him to teach and work in the world, rather than live in the monastery. Merton decided against these callings, feeling in his new convert’s zeal that God surely wanted him to disappear into a life of prayer for others. (It should be understood that Merton saw monastic prayer as undergirding the ministries of those in the world, and not cut off from them.)

Did the “Walnut Street epiphany” reconnect Merton with his earlier callings? Perhaps, but it is more likely that Merton discovered a very simple truth, a truth that inevitably flows from the Gospel when properly, deeply understood.

God is love. God loves me. God loves people. I love people. Not a series of “shoulds” and “oughts,” but a discovery of the reality of the Christian God. Not an audible voice, but the discovery of how the world looks through the Gospel and in Jesus. A stark contrast to non-Trinitarian understandings of God and certainly a contrast to views of reality that cannot accept the incarnation. It was, I would contend, a most healthy development in anyone’s Christian journey.

Merton’s experience suggests that Christian spirituality, worship, prayer and calling ought to bring us, eventually, to the love of people. Where God is most clearly seen and known, compassion and love for people ought to overflow. It is a wrong expression of Christianity that bears the fruit of hostility towards the world of humanity, and directs the Christian away from that world’s brokenness and reality. Merton shows us a rediscovery of true humanness, one where the world and the people in it have the glory of God about them, and we are called by that God into that world.

• • •

From a classic iMonk post, “Contemporary Worship and the ‘Walnut Street Epiphany'”

Adam and the Genome 1

Adam and the Genome 1- Foreword and Introduction

We are going to blog through the new book, Adam and the Genome: Reading Scripture after Genetic Science by Dennis Venema and Scot McKnight here at Internet Monk.  I, Mike the Geologist, your erstwhile science nerd, will attempt a chapter by chapter summary and discussion of this important book.  Unlike the series on the Grand Canyon, here I am more of an informed laymen, but I will strive to my uttermost to faithfully present the science side to you, the Imonk blog readers.  But the science of genomics is literally (see what I did there) only half the book.  The first four chapters are by Venema and the last four chapters are by McKnight and cover the theological aspects.  Fortunately, our own Chaplain Mike is as big a theology nerd as I am a science nerd, and, in fact, knows Scot McKnight personally.  So you can expect insightful and thoughtful comments by him that will go to the heart of each issue (not that he doesn’t do that all the time anyway).  So, in the second half of the book if I tee up some thoughts and they shank or hook us into the rough, Chaplain Mike will get us back on the fairway, never fear.

Dennis Venema is a professor of biology at Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia. He holds a B.Sc. (with Honors) from the University of British Columbia (1996), and received his Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia in 2003. His research is focused on the genetics of pattern formation and signaling using the common fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism. – See more at: http://biologos.org/biologos-voices/dennis-venema#sthash.eDtRurRC.dpuf .  Dennis is one of the regular bloggers at the Biologos web site, and writes regularly about the biological evidence for evolution. Biologos has some recent introductory posts about the book by Denis Alexander, Ken Keathley, and Pete Enns.  In my Science and Bible series, I relied heavily on Dennis’ writings for the genomic portion of that series.

Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author or editor of more than fifty books, is the Julius R. Mantey Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.  Dr. McKnight has given interviews on radios across the nation, has appeared on television, and is regularly speaks at local churches, conferences, colleges, and seminaries in the USA and abroad. Dr. McKnight obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Nottingham (1986) and has been a professor for more than three decades.  Scot McKnight is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature and the Society for New Testament Studies. He is the author of numerous books including the award-winning The Jesus Creed: Loving God, Loving Others (Paraclete, 2004), which won the Christianity Today book of the year for Christian Living.  Scot blogs at Jesus Creed (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/) Scot’s blog is my second click after Imonk.  There are introductory posts up at Jesus Creed about the book as well.

The chapters are titled:

  1. Evolution as Scientific Theory
  2. Genomes as Language, Genomes as Books
  3. Adam’s Last Stand?
  4. What about Intelligent Design
  5. Adam, Eve, and the Genome: Four Principles for Reading the Bible after the Human Genome Project
  6. Adam and Eve of Genesis in Their Context: Twelve Theses
  7. The Variety of Adams and Eves in the Jewish World
  8. Adam, the Genome, and the Apostle Paul

Did I mention that this is an important book?  The foreword is by Tremper Longman.  He serves as a Robert H. Gundry Professor of Biblical Studies at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California.  Tremper Longman, III is an Old Testament scholar, theologian, professor and author of several books, including 2009 ECPA Christian Book Award winner Dictionary of the Old Testament: Wisdom, Poetry & Writings.  Many of us at Imonk are familiar with Longman, who also blogs frequently at Biologos.

2009 was the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s “On the Origin of the Species”, and the evolution controversy has never raged harder within evangelical Protestant circles.  The mapping of the human genome was completed in 2003 under the leadership of Francis Collins, who is not only a leading biologist, but a devout evangelical Christian.  As Longman writes in the foreword, the evidence provided by the genome, added to the mounting evidence of hominid fossils, testifies to the persuasiveness of the theory presented by Darwin in the mid-nineteenth century.

Of course, the genomic evidence points to another conclusion that disturbs many evangelical Christians- namely, that humanity begins not with a single couple but rather with an original population of some thousands of people.

As Longman says:

“This evidence leads to the now-much-discussed question of the historical Adam.  If Adam and Eve were not historical individuals, is the Bible true?  Were humans originally innocent?  Was there a fall?  Is there such a thing as original sin?  If, so how does original sin affect us today?  These are crucial questions that aren’t easily answered.  They are also questions that cannot be ignored by refusing to address them or by vilifying those who hold opinions that are different from the ones we are used to…

I can’t imagine a better combination of thinkers to help us navigate the difficult and controversial waters of questions surrounding evolution and the historical Adam.   Dennis and Scot deserve our attention, and their arguments demand our careful consideration.  I, for one, thank them for their lifelong work in elucidating God’s “two books”, Scripture and nature, for us.”

I couldn’t agree more with that Longman quote.  He is absolutely right, this issue in NOT going away.  We evangelical Christians have no choice but to deal with it.  We can stick our heads in the sand and deal with it disingenuously, or we can hitch up our big girl panties and deal with it forthrightly. We can stick our fingers in our ears and yell, “BIBLE, BIBLE, BIBLE…” or we can engage honestly with the science and try to figure out what that means for our interpretation of the scriptural writings.

In the Introduction, Dennis recounts his childhood and early adulthood as a Christian steeped in suspicion of science in general and openly hostile to evolution in particular.  And yet at the same time he had a deep longing to be a scientist.  He resolved this tension by planning to be a medical missionary.  But by his third year in university, he was doing real research in cell biology, genetics, and how gene products work at the molecular level.  And he was hooked on real science; dropped the plans for medical school, and signed up for a PhD program in genetics and cell biology.  His childhood dreams were being fulfilled.  I can relate here, as I’ve shared before on this forum, I wanted to be a geologist from the time I was 5 years old.

Now he is on the other side of the equation, teaching biology to undergraduates—many of whom were coming from the similar evangelical background.  Like he did, they’ve heard evolution is evil and that they have to choose between the Bible and science.  So he is experienced in guiding evangelicals through the process of coming to terms with the science of evolution.  He met Scot at a Biologos conference where Scot was speaking, and, as they say, the rest is history.

Scot, for his part, took the time to read Dennis’ articles, and try to understand them.  He became convinced that Dennis was right about the genetics and realized that someone with the theological chops needed to put the context of the science in the context of the scriptures.  He decided, with Dennis’ urging to participate in a Biologos grant project, that it might as well be him.  To quote Scot:

“What follows in Adam and the Genome, then, is a basic introduction to the science of evolution and genetics and how it impinges on the basic claim of many Christians: that you and I, and the rest of humans for all time, come from two solitary individuals, Adam and Eve.  Genetics makes that claim impossible—as I understand it.  But instead of leading me to hide behind the Bible or insult scientists, genetics sent me into the stacks of books in the library to investigate science with freedom and to ask yet again what Genesis 1-3 was all about in its original context and then how Jews and the earliest Christians understood “Adam” when they said that name.”

Did I mention this is an important book?

Klasie Kraalogies: As Mist Before the Sun: The Slow Relief of Unbelief (1)

The Harrowing of Hell, Follower of H. Bosch

Note from CM: I invited one of our faithful readers and commenters to tell his story. Welcome Klasie today as he tells part one of his own journey into the post-evangelical wilderness.

• • •

AS MIST BEFORE THE SUN: THE SLOW RELIEF OF UNBELIEF
By Klasie Kraalogies

Part 1

If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly harmed. It is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance who is harmed.

• Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

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I still remember the time and place, but not the date. Dates are not important when you are 3 years old. Unless it is your birthday, or Christmas. But this day stuck. It was a sunny morning in Brockett Street, Vereeniging. And it was the back corner of the house – why the back corner, I won’t know. But there we were, praying. Something along the lines of letting the dear Lord Jesus into your heart. Me and my dad.

My family was God-saturated. My parents had been missionaries in Zambia before my birth (they met there). Dutch Reformed. Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk. There are 3 major Dutch Reformed denominations in South Africa, the NG Kerk being the largest of these. Dutch Calvinists are prone to splitting. But anyway. Not long after the experience related above though, they would leave Calvinism for a journey into the Charismatic movement (it was the seventies!) and end up in a curious sect/cult. More about that later.

My grandparents weren’t extremely religious – my one grandfather became atheist as a young man – but if you go further back my family history is filled with religious men way back to the Reformation. One ancestor was saved from being killed by Bloody Mary by falling off his horse after being summoned to London to face her – by the time he had recuperated, she had was no longer a factor. One of his descendants came to the Cape as missionary of the London Missionary Society. Another fled France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, preferring to face the unknown rather than renounce his Protestant faith. Yet another got called to the Dutch colony at the Cape as the first Lutheran Pastor sanctioned by the Dutch East India Company serving the few German settlers there.

I grew up in this religious household. Being different from the other kids in the public school – for instance, I had to sit in the classroom when the school organized a movie at the end of Term. No nasty worldly entertainment. And somehow, there was no desire to rebel. I hated the entertainment, not the restrictions.

I mentioned a sect. By the time I was nine years old, we were immersed. These guys were different. They were Strict! With a capital ’S’! No dating! No worldliness! No TV! No worldly hairstyles! No music with a beat! (?) They had a Mission Station, which became our main holiday destination henceforth, where one would enjoy the wonder of 3 services every day. Being harangued from the pulpit. Being told to confess your sins. Being told you must be perfect! But you can only really be forgiven if you confess your sins to a councillor – James 5:16. As in the Kims’ Korea, wrongful thoughts were the most prominent sins. Especially thoughts about the opposite sex. If you don’t confess them, you will burn in hell.  And if you happen to die between thinking them and seeing your confessor – you’ll still burn. “Want to know about hell? Let’s watch this movie about hell.” Estus Pirkle’s “Burning Hell” was shown at least once a week.

And so I grew up – in perpetual fear. Religion was fear. Fear was religion. The world was a snare pit. A 6000 – year old snare pit.

And then I went to university and studied Geology. And decided to start reading other types of theological thoughts.

Until next time….

Another Look: Always the Road

New River Gorge Bridge, Photo by David Cornwell

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Always the Road

All my life I’ve thought one day this wandering will be past.
One eureka moment! and I will be at home.
A sweet oasis — fruitful, verdant, restful land —
And I will smile, survey the scene, and settle down.

There we will laugh and feast and play ’til dark
Then lie within each other’s arms and sigh
And sleep as those untroubled or perplexed,
Wake to breathe the dew and steaming coffee mist.

Along this way I’ve sat at pleasant tables,
I have drunk the hospitality of friends;
Laughed until our bellies ached, falling to the floor
All night long, dreading only dawn’s sharp gleam.

For then, the road — always the road —
And “home” becomes another rearview mirror sigh.
Digging through the bin I find my sunglasses.
Visor down, I chase another light.

2013

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Photo by David Cornwell at Flickr

Why We Had Merton Week (with more such “weeks” to come)

McDowell Sonoran Preserve, Arizona 2015

Why We Had Merton Week (with more such “weeks” to come)

A couple of weeks ago I hit the wall.

I’ll spare you the gory details, but let’s just say I exhausted my capacity to concentrate and to speak without setting on fire the room around me.

I remember when this happened back in 2011. I packed my bags for Gethsemani Abbey and spent a week in silence, starting with a couple days of nothing but sleeping and eating and listening to the angels à la Elijah in 1Kings 19.

This year, at this time, I had no such luxury.

So I did the next best thing. I picked up Thomas Merton, shut my mouth, and listened.

In particular I was listening for two things: the renewing power of silence and the value of daily work well done. That’s why I, on this occasion, chose the quotes I did (apart from Tuesday, which came by way of recommendation from Ted).

Silence and work. These were the two aspects of my demeanor most obviously affected by my empty tank. I couldn’t focus on doing my work well. I couldn’t shut my mouth when frustrated.

There are times, dear friends, when the voice of Internet Monk needs to just shut up and listen.

I will tell you now, there will be more such times. And when they come, I will search out someone who has been a wise mentor to me and I will bite my tongue and listen.

And after “a sound of sheer silence” (1Kings 19:12-13), I hope that I will then be ready to hear God’s voice and go back to work again.

Sermon: Epiphany V – Be Who You Are

The Family Farm, Ohio 2016

Note from CM: There are no extant Bach cantatas for Epiphany V or VI, so this Sunday we will post only our Sunday sermon.

• • •

SERMON: Be Who You Are

You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

• Matthew 5:13-20

• • •

The other evening I was with a family that was keeping vigil with a woman who lay dying of breast cancer. She’s been fighting the disease twelve years and has done well, but she had a recent setback that led to a swift decline and as we gathered there, it was clear that she would soon die.

She had just come home from the hospital, and so family and friends were all coming to see her and her daughter and closest loved ones as soon as they could. Among those who came were a couple of friends she had come to know in the breast cancer community. One woman was a survivor who had decided she wanted to give back by helping others who were getting treatments, and so she became a driver who took people back and forth to their doctor and chemotherapy appointments. She and the woman who lay dying had become best friends through the experience.

Another woman, amazingly, was a 64-year survivor of breast cancer. Someone told me she is the longest surviving breast cancer breast cancer patient in the state of Indiana. She had also become a dear friend of the woman who lay dying, and she openly wept at the prospect of losing yet another friend to the disease.

Watching these women interact reminded me how many people I have known over the years who have been blessed and who have been so thankful for that that they decided to devote themselves in some way to giving back so that others might be blessed as they had.

Having been blessed, it was as natural as anything for them to want to be a blessing to others.

I think that is the development we see in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

Last week we talked about how Jesus had come to bring the blessings of God’s Kingdom to everyone, including the people who often get left out in the world’s way of doing things.

Today, Jesus looks those people in the face — those people whom he pronounced “blessed” — and he says to them, “You are the salt of the earth….You are the light of the world.” You have been blessed, Jesus says, now go out and be who you are; live as blessed people in the world and others will likewise be blessed.

Please notice something very important here. Jesus doesn’t say to them, “You must become the salt of the earth.” Nor does he say, “You must become the light of the world.” Instead, Jesus affirms what they already are. “You are the salt of the earth.” “You are the light of the world.” As people blessed by Jesus, they are already salt and light. It is now their nature to be a blessing to others. They don’t have to take a Sunday School class or hear a sermon about how to become salt and light. Having been blest, that is what they are.

Notice also the warnings Jesus gives them: “Don’t lose your saltiness.” “Don’t hide your light.” He is not trying to get them to do something new, to enter some kind of program of training to learn to be salt and light. Instead, he only instructs them to refuse to let anything keep them from being who they already are.

They are the salt of the earth, Jesus says. The main use for salt in the ancient world, a world without refrigeration, was to act as a preservative, to keep food from going bad.

They are the light of the world, Jesus says. The ancient world was a world without electricity and artificial light. It was a dark world, an place in which it was easy for people to stumble or get lost. A bit of light could go a long way toward helping people back then.

Those who are blessed by Jesus are salt and light. If we will simply be who we are, we too can be a preserving influence in this world; we too can provide a little light to help others find their way.

The point is that God has not only blessed us by forgiving our sins, welcoming us into his family and promising eternal life in Christ. He has also made us new so that we can walk in newness of life. He has blessed us so that we are a blessing to others. This is his gift of grace to us. We are salt and light, and if we will just be who we really are, our lives will bless those around us.

I’ve known many people like many of you good folks in this congregation, who grew up in good families and were blessed with good parents, good teachers, good friends, and good neighbors. You grew up and were blessed by others who were salt and light. And now that’s who you are. Just by being who you are, your life blesses and enriches those around you.

I’ve also known other people who didn’t know those kinds of blessings. Perhaps their families were broken and dysfunctional, or even cruel and abusive. They grew up finding it hard to trust anyone and their way has been rough and painful. But I’ve known people like that who found redemption in Jesus and God turned their lives around. And now they are not only blessed, they are a blessing to others who have likewise had a difficult course through life. They are salt and light and it is the most natural thing in the world for them to care about the hurting.

People with influential teachers often grow up with a passion to teach others. People with coaches who mentored them well often become coaches who develop others. Those women with breast cancer I mentioned at the beginning had been blest through the care of others, and they reflexively asked, “Now, how can I help others who are going through similar trials?”

I myself was influenced by a youth pastor, and here I am, more than forty years later, proclaiming God’s Word in church. My grandmother blessed me with a marvelous example of someone who visited and cared for her elderly neighbors. And so it is a part of my very nature now to be in hospice ministry, visiting folks in the final season of life. It’s not just what I do to earn a living. It is a part of my very being. Through the blessing I was given, I also received a vocation.

You see, it is an organic part of being blessed that we become transformed into people who bless others. God’s blessings never end with the people who receive them. Instead blessed people become channels through which God’s mercy and grace flows to bless those around them.

This is God’s great gift to us. To those to whom Jesus says, “Blessed are you,” he also says, “You are salt, you are light.”

And so I want to encourage you, my dear brothers and sisters, when you go out that door today and into your world, your family, your school, your work, your community, simply be who you are. Be the blessed people of Jesus, and the world will be blessed.

Amen.

The Internet Monk Saturday Brunch: 2/4/17

THE INTERNET MONK SATURDAY BRUNCH

”It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.”

Well, I sure am glad this was such a quiet, uneventful week, aren’t you? No wonder the guy above is grinning. Today, Internet Monk officially proclaims that this is the superhero we need for our times: Captain Chaos — “Dun dun DUNNNN!!”

Oh yes, we also marked Groundhog Day this past week. The crack reporters from the Babylon Bee were there to give us the results…

http://babylonbee.com/news/joel-osteen-sees-shadow-predicts-another-year-taking-bible-context/

And to top off this amazing week, there is a little football game coming up on Sunday. Here are a few fun facts to spice up your enjoyment of Superb Owl LI.

  • More than 100 million people will watch the game.
  • Hosting the game will cost the city of Houston 5.5 million dollars.
  • The game is expected to bring at least $350 million to Houston’s local economy.
  • On Monday, the average reseller price for a ticket to the game was over $6,000.
  • The cost of a 30-second television ad during the game exceeds $5 million.
  • Tiffany’s has been producing the Vince Lombardi Trophy since SB I in 1967. The trophy is made from scratch every year and costs $50,000.
  • Sports fans are poised to wager more than $4 billion in bets on this year’s SB, with about 97 percent being bet illegally.
  • SB Sunday is the second largest food consumption day in America, behind only Thanksgiving.
  • Americans will buy 12.5 million pizzas on SB Sunday, with an average order value of $26.45.
  • Over the weekend, Americans are set to eat 1.33 billion chicken wings.
  • Beer sales will approach $600 million, and another $110 million will be spent on liquor and spirits.

And what would this game be without the advertisements? Here is the SB ad that will unite America in these divisive early days of 2017:

• • •

With all that food on the table tomorrow, we’d better stretch our stomachs today with several extra helpings at the IM brunch buffet! Come on, who wants some more bacon?

SPURIOUS CORRELATIONS

This one is for our Canadian friend Mike Bell and for everyone who loves statistics and cogent analysis. Check out tylervigen.com for some amazing charts revealing remarkable correlations that tell incredible stories!

For example…

THIS IS ONE BAD TEACHER

And I mean that in a good way. I love teachers who help their students enjoy coming to school and learning. Barry White Jr., a fifth-grade English teacher at the Ashley Park Elementary School in Charlotte, North Carolina, is one of those inspiring teachers.

Every morning he greets each student with a unique, specially choreographed handshake, welcoming them to school in style. Watch how they do it…

These kids will remember Mr. White their whole life long.

RANK THE NEW ENGLAND INSTITUTIONS

Okay, so maybe Ted and Randy and a few other of our New England readers (Joanie, are you there?) can help us have a little fun with this one.

Bill Pennington at the New York Times has issued a challenge: rank the New England Patriots (playing in this year’s big game) among some of the other great institutions of the region.

Here’s the list:

  • Dunkin’ Donuts
  • Fried Clams
  • Ben Affleck and Matt Damon
  • The New England Patriots
  • The Boston Celtics (Larry Bird)
  • The Boston Marathon
  • The Old North Church and Paul Revere
  • Cheers
  • The Red Sox, Fenway and the “Green Monster”
  • L.L. Bean
  • Stephen King
  • Higher Education

Go to the article, take the quiz, and then read the results. After that you can tell us what kind of a New Englander you are.

And hey, sorry we left out the Bruins, hockey fans. And Ted, where the heck are the lobster rolls? They gotta be #1, right?

QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK

Is division among Christians always a scandal?

What is the future of Christian healthcare sharing?

Where have all the skinny jeans pastors gone?

Why do many think human blood is sometimes blue?

Is this really a good idea for Valentine’s Day? And would a person really need reservations?

SCIENTISTS WILL MARCH ON WASHINGTON

Scientists are not typically known as activists, but the recent women’s marches in Washington and across the U.S. have inspired “thousands of scientists [to] leave their labs and take to the streets to rally on behalf of publicly funded, openly communicated, evidence-based research.”

The “March for Science” is scheduled for April 22, Earth Day.

Here’s the text from the march’s official site:

The March for Science is a celebration of our passion for science and a call to support and safeguard the scientific community. Recent policy changes have caused heightened worry among scientists, and the incredible and immediate outpouring of support has made clear that these concerns are also shared by hundreds of thousands of people around the world. Mischaracterization of science as a partisan issue, which has given policymakers permission to reject overwhelming evidence, is a critical and urgent matter. It is time for people who support scientific research and evidence-based policies to take a public stand and be counted.

ON APRIL 22, 2017, WE WALK OUT OF THE LAB AND INTO THE STREETS.

We are scientists and science enthusiasts. We come from all races, all religions, all gender identities, all sexual orientations, all abilities, all socioeconomic backgrounds, all political perspectives, and all nationalities. Our diversity is our greatest strength: a wealth of opinions, perspectives, and ideas is critical for the scientific process. What unites us is a love of science, and an insatiable curiosity. We all recognize that science is everywhere and affects everyone.

Science is often an arduous process, but it is also thrilling. A universal human curiosity and dogged persistence is the greatest hope for the future. This movement cannot and will not end with a march. Our plans for policy change and community outreach will start with marches worldwide and a teach-in at the National Mall, but it is imperative that we continue to celebrate and defend science at all levels – from local schools to federal agencies – throughout the world.

FATHER RENE AND HIS DECLARATION OF LIFE

Here is the remarkable story of Father Rene Robert, a priest in St. John’s County, Florida who was vehemently opposed to the death penalty. His life’s work involved helping people with substance abuse problems and criminal histories. In 1995, he signed a notarized “Declaration of Life,” asking that, if he were ever to be murdered, the killer would be allowed to live.

“Should I die as a result of a violent crime, I request that the person or persons found guilty of homicide for my killing not be subject to or put in jeopardy of the death penalty under any circumstance, no matter how heinous their crime or how much I have suffered.”

Last year, at age 71, Robert was murdered. The alleged killer, Steven Murray, was a repeat offender that the priest was working with in hopes of his rehabilitation. Now, if convicted, Murray could face the death penalty.

The priest’s Declaration of Life has no legal significance in court. But his family, his fellow priests, and his alleged killer hope the dead priest’s stated commitment to life will lead to Murray being spared the ultimate punishment.

Father Robert’s fellow ministers in Florida’s Diocese of St. Augustine have taken his wishes to heart. A petition has amassed more than 7,000 signatures by people who oppose the death penalty for his alleged killer. On Jan. 31, the Florida diocese delivered the petition to the Georgia court where Steven Murray will be tried for the crime.

THIS WEEK IN MUSIC…

The first truly great singer-songwriter album of 2017 has been playing non-stop in my car for a few weeks now. Natalie Hemby’s Puxico is a wonderfully evocative tribute to a hometown, in this case her grandfather’s hometown.

Each year and for many decades now, that small town, Puxico, Missouri, has held a week-long homecoming celebration of their lives and their history. Natalie Hemby decided to do a documentary film about Puxico and its homecoming, and the songs on this album come from the film and its stories.

For a Midwest boy like me, this album hits the sweetest of spots in my heart, and Natalie Hemby’s expressive lyrics and wistful voice take me back there every time I hear them. Home.

Here is my favorite song on Puxico, a vivid, pensive picture of the mark a small town hero makes on those he leaves behind.

Merton Week: Ora et Labora

Barn at Gethsemani 2014

• • •

I asked Reverend Father what made Brother [Gregory, who had just died] so saintly. I don’t know what kind of answer I was hoping to get. It would have made me happy to hear something about a deep and simple spirit of prayer, something about unsuspected heights of faith, purity of heart, interior silence, solitude, love for God. Perhaps he had spoken with the birds, like Saint Francis.

Reverend Father answered very promptly: “Brother was always working,” he said. “Brother did not even know how to be idle. If you sent him out to take care of the cows in the pasture, he still found plenty to do. He brought in buckets of blackberries. He did not know how to be idle.”

I came out of Reverend Father’s room feeling like a man who has missed his train.

• Thomas Merton, The Sign of Jonas

Merton: “Full of the racket of my imperfections and passions”

Rainy Day, Gethsemani Fields 2011

• • •

You have made my soul for Your peace and Your silence, but it is lacerated by the noise of my activity and my desires. My mind is crucified all day by its own hunger for experience, for ideas, for satisfaction. And I do not possess my house in silence.

But I was created for Your peace and You will not despise my longing for the holiness of Your deep silence. O my Lord, You will not leave me forever in this sorrow, because I have trusted in You and I will wait upon Your good pleasure in peace and without complaining any more. This, for Your glory.

I am content that these pages show me to be what I am—noisy, full of the racket of my imperfections and passions, and the wide open wounds left by my sins. Full of my own emptiness. Yet, ruined as my house is, You live there!

• Thomas Merton, The Sign of Jonas