Dan Carlson

Not that I’m suggesting you haven’t encountered some truly problematic takes out there, but I always want to be careful we don’t toss any baby (Jesus) out with the bath water.

You only get into trouble when you treat past and present comings as though they’re the complete story. Christians live in relationship to a certain kind of future, a certain kind of ending which God will bring about through (and often in spite of) our best fumbling efforts as disciples.

Assuming the ‘we’ is the Church, that’s pretty standard Christian theology. The Church is the Body of (the Risen) Christ. Advent is a season for emphasizing 3 different Comings of Christ: past, future, and present. They all matter deeply.

YouTube video by Church of the Advent The Cloud of Witnesses

We (Church of the Advent, Cincinnati) just released this cartoon for All Saints. More to come in the year ahead. www.youtube.com/watch?v=prFT...

YouTube video by Church of the Advent The Cloud of Witnesses

⚓️ New cartoon from Church of the Advent, Cincinnati, just in time for All Saints. More to come. youtu.be/prFTHqxhoio

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“In the face of death, live humanly. In the middle of chaos, celebrate the Word.” —William Stringfellow, An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens in a Strange Land

More photographic evidence that you can have good spooky fun at church:

Wednesday Oct 29, Church of the Advent Cincy gathered for our third annual ‘Horror of the Bible’ event. This year’s theme was vampires, which led us through an evening of bloody biblical storytelling in the chapel. We also released the fourth issue in our ‘Hell Yeah!’ series of bible horror comics!

his strange act of peacemaking with sister death.

It’s not the only way to frame things, of course, but I find it helpful and I’m grateful for Francis’ witness in this area.

from those we love remains profound in the present order. Somehow, in ways we will never grasp fully this side of eternity, Death has been defeated and therefore all manner of thing shall be well—including death herself. It’s this underlying truth which, I think, our brother Francis models with

Understood as a uniform evil (example: all cycles of life on earth depend on the steady function of death and decay). My understanding is that Christ defeats ‘Death’ while also experiencing ‘death’, somehow removing the final terror of that biological reality, even as the pain of being separated

I’ve seen some folks make this distinction, which I find helpful: ‘Death’ (capital D) as the great enemy (a nihilistic cosmic power which seeks to obliterate life and oppose God’s purposes) vs ‘death’ (lowercase, a biological reality which need not be

The Bible regularly speaks in such poetic and mythic tones which can make a thing like death very challenging to boil down to a single definitive take.

The biblical witness does not uniformly suggest that biological death is alien to our nature. Gen 3:22, for example, imagines that the first humans in paradise were mortal (because it suggests that access to the the Tree of Life would *grant* immortality to otherwise mortal beings).

I’ve seen plenty of Death’s grim handiwork and I’m fine with declaring its horror without qualification.

However…

I’m very sympathetic to a strong framing of Death as the enemy. This lies near the heart of much ancient theology (like Christus Victor) and modern theology (like the work of William Stringfellow) which I greatly admire. More personally, having worked as both a hospital chaplain and a parish priest,

I’m perfectly comfortable with our Anglican capacity to hold difference, especially given that the subject of death is not presented in a simple or univocal manner, either in scripture or the broader theological tradition, but I’d add the following to this discussion:

Not quite—Lazarus and Abraham are the only named parable people. But you’re very correct to point out the Lazarus parable as unique in this respect!

‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.’ Matthew 5:7

Happy 10th anniversary, #undertale

But without Spire, the world would not know the wonder that is Hippie In His Steps

Best to both you and your students as classes resume!

Here’s the card backs so you can read the collects which we’ve used. If these are of use/interest, reach out via the connect page at adventcincy.org and I’ll have someone give you a price quote on the quantity that you’re seeking (as well as our supply on hand if these need to be sent out ASAP).

For cards depicting St Anne, Hadewijch, William Stringfellow, and Julian of Norwich

Here’s some being produced by my parish (Church of the Advent, Cincinnati). The current selection is a bit boutique (reflecting our parish), but I believe that St Luke is currently at the printer, so the Cloud of Witnesses continues to grow.

Revisit 1 Samuel 31. The Amalekite in this passage is lying—he looted Saul’s corpse and made up a story that he *thinks* will earn him a reward from David. Things…do not go to plan. But even so, let’s not let David off the hook: he is needlessly murder-y, and that does not deserve our blessing.

Pro tip: the version of ‘Fount’ in LEVaS continues to raise its Ebenezer, so just use that.

Waiting to see who the Romans pick as their new boss. Depending on how that goes I may well get even more Protestant.

An opportunity to remind folks that the BCP defines the Holy Eucharist as: ‘The Liturgy for the Proclamation of the Word of God and Celebration of the Holy Communion’ (p315). Meaning, per the BCP, preaching is not a junior partner in the liturgical action. We are a church of both Word & Sacrament.

Equally ideal if the box is unbleached linen.

Well played, sir.