Die Presbymeme Zwei

Neal Locke, friend of heretics and voices of all things theologically marginal or somewhat marginal, spread the love to me, from whence he received the same said love from Bruce Reyes-Chow or, the current Uber-Presbyterian, vindicator of all things decent and in order, through the post of one Maria Anderson.

The Rules

• In about 25 words each, answer the following five questions.
• Tag five presbyterian bloggers and send them a note to let them know they were tagged.
• Be sure to link to this original post.
• Leave a comment or send a trackback to this post so others can find you.

1) What is your favorite faith-based hymn, song or chorus?

I have posted before on how much I am not a big fan of so-called "contemporary" love songs to Jesus.  I am not a big fan of 99% of all Christian music I have listened to as well.  Which is to say, any decidedly Christian-themed music I have every enjoyed has probably never won a Dove award or was even named on a voter's ballot.  So I kick it old school with hymns.  Singing Come, Thou Font of Every Blessing in Miller Chapel is about the best thing ever.  Other than playing drums with a gospel choir at a C.O.G.I.C. (which I have done many times), it is the closest to God I have ever come.  I wish I could sing it there with 100 of my closest friends right now the more I remember it.  An awesome experience, especially when you are sitting with the choir.

2) What was the context, content and/or topic of the last sermon that truly touched, convicted, inspired, challenged, comforted and/or otherwise moved you?

The most recent one was a piece by Gene Robinson who in a piece give at either Vanderbilt Divinity or Union Seminary (NY).  Although not really a sermon, it preached and still buzzes in between my ears regularly.  He says, if I remember correctly, the two most important questions to ask are: How was I saved? and What did I do about it?  That stuck with me.  Bryant Kirkland also nailed me with a metaphor of the very power of God that we can hold in the shell of an acorn.  M. Craig Barnes preached on the power of Christ using the narrative of calming the storm that stuck with me.  Both of those were at National Presbyterian Church which was my first real congregation as a post-Catholic.

3) If you could have all Presbyterians read just one of your previous posts, what would it be and why?

I have one, but it then goes for two more posts as my idea got a bit bigger.  The first one is called "The Effect of Religion on Wealth Inequality" followed by my development of this into an idea of the church as a sacrament here and here.  My view of the church is that, as the Body of Christ, the people are the most important sacrament of the working of God to build God's Kingdom.  Here I get a tad heterodox since the use of a means of grace, certainly in the Shorter Catechism, is to be for those who receive sacraments in faith.  The sacrament presupposes faith in Christ.  However, my view of the church is that it is the sole means of grace for God to truly engage the world in a tangible way.  This is why I call the church a Sacrament.  Just being a part of the church of Christ is a testimony to God's grace alone that holds it together.

4) What are three PC(USA) flavored blogs you read on a regular basis?

• Tribal Church, by Carol Howard Merritt
• Revdarth, by Ed Goode
• Shuck and Jive, by John Shuck

5) If the PC(USA) were a movie, what would it be and why?

Easy…  Eraserhead or Donnie Darko.  No not really…

My movie tastes are so off-beat this was tough.  But then I thought, off-beat makes some sense.  I am going with Little Miss Sunshine.  We are all a little psychologically off-set and we find ways to be together in spite of being so different.  We are a family not without serious issues and disagreements.  But somehow, I think we can still make this thing work.  We just need to continue to look out for each other and pick each other up when we fall.

In the fear of being redundant as I tend to be (if I am getting you and you already did it, you don't need to do this again), I am tagging: Ed Goode, John Shuck, David Williams, Iris, and Fred Anderson.

Related posts:

1. revised statement of faith
2. maybe there is no gospel after all