I didn't know the F/A 18 Hornet was made in Taiwan.
It's a strange world.
Basil The Fly
Saturday, April 03, 2004
Thursday, April 01, 2004
News Flash
NATO Shoots an Orthodox Priest
Just in case you haven't read or heard the news that NATO troops shot an Orthodox priest in the overnight raid of an Orthodox Church in Bosnia:
Orthodox Priest Shot by NATO
Also, for those of you who pray...
A customer that I work with has been visiting us at work. He was scheduled to be with us for a couple weeks, but unexpectedly got tragic news last night and had to return home to the east coast. His brother was killed in the gruesome killings yesterday in Iraq. Keep him in your prayers.
It is difficult to comprehend the mentality of horrific people who take such delight in death. Of course, eternal damnation awaits them... I guess they'd better learn to like death... But such a tragedy is always intensified if you know someone who it touches directly. It is no longer remoted, bizarre, and sickening news, but something almost personal.
Regards,
Basil
NATO Shoots an Orthodox Priest
Just in case you haven't read or heard the news that NATO troops shot an Orthodox priest in the overnight raid of an Orthodox Church in Bosnia:
Orthodox Priest Shot by NATO
Also, for those of you who pray...
A customer that I work with has been visiting us at work. He was scheduled to be with us for a couple weeks, but unexpectedly got tragic news last night and had to return home to the east coast. His brother was killed in the gruesome killings yesterday in Iraq. Keep him in your prayers.
It is difficult to comprehend the mentality of horrific people who take such delight in death. Of course, eternal damnation awaits them... I guess they'd better learn to like death... But such a tragedy is always intensified if you know someone who it touches directly. It is no longer remoted, bizarre, and sickening news, but something almost personal.
Regards,
Basil
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
W I J L
You have heard of WWJD - that classic Protestant question: "What Would Jesus Do?" the answer to which is supposed to solve every problem in life, from whether to buy Skippy or Jiff peanut butter, to whether you go to Church or the ballgame next Sunday. What kind of car would Jesus drive? Somehow I imagine a Subaru... really it is only a matter of time until we see a TV commercial with a Jesus-like (think clothing, hair, beard, starry gaze in eyes) driving a Subaru over the hill and through the woods, until at the very end you see a caption: "What Would Jesus Drive?" (fade into the Subaru logo)
Well, anyway... silliness aside...
Here's the Orthodox version: W I J L (What Is Jesus Like?) Obsessed as we Orthodox are with ontology, existentialism - the meaning of everything points back to the existence... the ontology of a thing being pre-eminent in our lives... Well, it turns out things have taken a turn that direction in our latest blogs and discussions.
What Is Jesus Like?
Every problem we confront in humanity has its solution in the answer to this very problem, does it not?
Anyway, as I posted earlier, James has an interesting blog where he takes exception to something St. Athanasios said. I take exception to that in my post below, and I rather think I do so quite succinctly.
However, apparently there is more to the issue. Steve (neighbor down the street... really... he's EVERYONE'S neighbor!) writes the following: "how does this address whether or not Christ ever had a cold?"
So, let me continue my reasoning along those lines...
14) {1 to 13 are below} Since Christ is no less human now than he was prior to his Crucifixion and Resurrection, He is no less (and no more) capable of having a cold than He was back then.
15) Therefore it is just as likely that He catch a cold now as it was that he caught a cold back the. (Perhaps even more so since his body is 2000 years old? but I digress)
16) I have never read in the Gospels that he had a cold, but that isn't proof he didn't, since I have also never read in the Gospels that he defecated or took a pee, and we believe that He was biologically human, and therefore from time to time heeded the call of nature.
17) What I will say, however, is that it seem "out of character" - When God became Man it was no ordinary event. He healed people everywhere he went. How could he even have an opportunity to get sick? People just walked past and were healed just from touching the hem of His garment. I guess, I'm a skeptic. I don't think He ever got sick, nor that he would have gotten sick. Notice I don't say "could have" I say "would have" - of course He is human, so He "could have" gotten sick. But He was also God. So it was always a matter of His choice whether he got sick or not.
18) I do believe he experienced hunger and pain. He certainly experienced hunger when he fasted in the wilderness. He may have even been "famished" - even delirious. But He never lost consciousness as a result of fasting too much, but I imagine he may have been close. But sick. No, Jesus didn't Do That.
19) We don't "need" for him to have experienced sickness first hand, in order to believe He empathizes with us when we are sick, and in order to believe he can and will heal us.
Regards,
Basil
You have heard of WWJD - that classic Protestant question: "What Would Jesus Do?" the answer to which is supposed to solve every problem in life, from whether to buy Skippy or Jiff peanut butter, to whether you go to Church or the ballgame next Sunday. What kind of car would Jesus drive? Somehow I imagine a Subaru... really it is only a matter of time until we see a TV commercial with a Jesus-like (think clothing, hair, beard, starry gaze in eyes) driving a Subaru over the hill and through the woods, until at the very end you see a caption: "What Would Jesus Drive?" (fade into the Subaru logo)
Well, anyway... silliness aside...
Here's the Orthodox version: W I J L (What Is Jesus Like?) Obsessed as we Orthodox are with ontology, existentialism - the meaning of everything points back to the existence... the ontology of a thing being pre-eminent in our lives... Well, it turns out things have taken a turn that direction in our latest blogs and discussions.
What Is Jesus Like?
Every problem we confront in humanity has its solution in the answer to this very problem, does it not?
Anyway, as I posted earlier, James has an interesting blog where he takes exception to something St. Athanasios said. I take exception to that in my post below, and I rather think I do so quite succinctly.
However, apparently there is more to the issue. Steve (neighbor down the street... really... he's EVERYONE'S neighbor!) writes the following: "how does this address whether or not Christ ever had a cold?"
So, let me continue my reasoning along those lines...
14) {1 to 13 are below} Since Christ is no less human now than he was prior to his Crucifixion and Resurrection, He is no less (and no more) capable of having a cold than He was back then.
15) Therefore it is just as likely that He catch a cold now as it was that he caught a cold back the. (Perhaps even more so since his body is 2000 years old? but I digress)
16) I have never read in the Gospels that he had a cold, but that isn't proof he didn't, since I have also never read in the Gospels that he defecated or took a pee, and we believe that He was biologically human, and therefore from time to time heeded the call of nature.
17) What I will say, however, is that it seem "out of character" - When God became Man it was no ordinary event. He healed people everywhere he went. How could he even have an opportunity to get sick? People just walked past and were healed just from touching the hem of His garment. I guess, I'm a skeptic. I don't think He ever got sick, nor that he would have gotten sick. Notice I don't say "could have" I say "would have" - of course He is human, so He "could have" gotten sick. But He was also God. So it was always a matter of His choice whether he got sick or not.
18) I do believe he experienced hunger and pain. He certainly experienced hunger when he fasted in the wilderness. He may have even been "famished" - even delirious. But He never lost consciousness as a result of fasting too much, but I imagine he may have been close. But sick. No, Jesus didn't Do That.
19) We don't "need" for him to have experienced sickness first hand, in order to believe He empathizes with us when we are sick, and in order to believe he can and will heal us.
Regards,
Basil
Some thoughts on the Incarnation, Crucifixion and Resurrection.
James has posted a very interesting question, refering to St. Athanasions fine treatise "On the Incarnation"
I tried to respond by replying on his "comment" area, but I couldn't say what I needed to in the allowed characters, so my response is here.
I like to think in steps. It makes is easier to rationally deduce something if you take it one step at a time.
So, step by step, here's what I (and I suspect the Church) affirm:
1) Jesus Christ after the incarnation was fully God and fully man.
2) Because He is fully God, he is indestructable.
3) Because His Body is (and was) fully human it is destructable.
4) When Christ rose from the dead he possessed the same precise "portions" of Divinity and Humanity that he possessed before the Resurrection.
5) He is today no more Divine than he was before the Crucifixion.
6) He is today no less Human than he was before the Crucifixion.
7) His surrender of his Body to Crucifixion was a one time thing. It was sufficient. It was enough.
8) Therefore he need not surrender his body again to Crucifixion.
9) However, his flesh (even though we think of it as Deified) is still "Crucifyable"
10) Therefore, if Christ has not been crucified, one may speculate that He would never have died, just as he now never dies.
11) The only way to kill Christ is for Him to willing give Himself up to death.
12) To think that He is somehow more Divine now than he was then is to disbelieve in the incarnation.
13) To think that He is somehow less Human now than he was then is to disbelieve in the incarnation.
So, in my thinking, the bottom line is: the only way you can kill Jesus is if he willing surrenders Himself to death. We do not believe He will do that again.
And it all makes sense when compared to what St. Athanasios has said.
Regards,
Basil
James has posted a very interesting question, refering to St. Athanasions fine treatise "On the Incarnation"
I tried to respond by replying on his "comment" area, but I couldn't say what I needed to in the allowed characters, so my response is here.
I like to think in steps. It makes is easier to rationally deduce something if you take it one step at a time.
So, step by step, here's what I (and I suspect the Church) affirm:
1) Jesus Christ after the incarnation was fully God and fully man.
2) Because He is fully God, he is indestructable.
3) Because His Body is (and was) fully human it is destructable.
4) When Christ rose from the dead he possessed the same precise "portions" of Divinity and Humanity that he possessed before the Resurrection.
5) He is today no more Divine than he was before the Crucifixion.
6) He is today no less Human than he was before the Crucifixion.
7) His surrender of his Body to Crucifixion was a one time thing. It was sufficient. It was enough.
8) Therefore he need not surrender his body again to Crucifixion.
9) However, his flesh (even though we think of it as Deified) is still "Crucifyable"
10) Therefore, if Christ has not been crucified, one may speculate that He would never have died, just as he now never dies.
11) The only way to kill Christ is for Him to willing give Himself up to death.
12) To think that He is somehow more Divine now than he was then is to disbelieve in the incarnation.
13) To think that He is somehow less Human now than he was then is to disbelieve in the incarnation.
So, in my thinking, the bottom line is: the only way you can kill Jesus is if he willing surrenders Himself to death. We do not believe He will do that again.
And it all makes sense when compared to what St. Athanasios has said.
Regards,
Basil
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