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I’ve just learned the etymology of the word “suede.” It seems rather obvious now that I think about it.
undressed kid skin, 1884, from gants de Suède (1859), lit. “gloves of Sweden,” from Fr. Suède “Sweden.”
Etymonline.com scores again!
While in Pennsylvania on Christmas Day at my grandpa Pap’s house he busted out an old photo album he purchased at a sale of his parents’ earthly goods many years ago after my great-grandma passed away. The gem reproduced below is a photo of Peter Beachy III which caught my eye as Pap was flipping through. Pap assures me that Peter Beachy, whose name he unabashedly pronounces “Pitter Bitchy,” was somewhat of a legend in his day. I reckon the face-framing beardcut (beard + haircut) had something to do with his notoriety.
My mom immediately accused Pap of photoshopping this picture, but that in itself is problematic as the closest Pap has been to the Internet is when I did a Twitter tweet via my mobile phone from his house. Photshopped? Out of the question. Fanstastic beardcut? Most definitely.
Below is the writing from the back of the picture:
Peter Beachy III
son of Peter and Sally,
father of Bishop Joel,
brother of Bishop Jonas
I can think of only one line to improve upon this ascription:
possesor of most excellent beardcut
If you happen to find this post while doing research on a Peter Beachy III whom you imagine to be in your family tree, please leave a note explaining this man’s notoreity if not due to his looks. If due to his looks, please still leave a note.
If I had to preach a Christmas sermon, the following is what I would preach, “When Gentiles Sing to Jews.”
I wonder if we totally grasp the weight of the incarnation of the Son of God, coming as a small Christ child.
Luke 1-2 should serve as a reminder to those of us who are Gentiles that the coming of the Messiah is primarily a Jewish event. Luke, who may have been a gentile, understood this. Keeping with his expressed purpose inLuke 1:1-4, the evangelist writes in the remainder of the first chapter and into the second to inform us of the events surrounding the advent of the Christ child. It is not insignificant that the events he’s preserved for us are entirely and utterly Jewish.
Luke 1:5 further introduces the Jewish Christ story with mention of the King of Judea and a priest whose wife was a daughter of Aaron. They walk “blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord” though without a child. Reminiscent of Hannah? Possibly, though Mary is a far more likely candidate. Next, Zechariah is chosen by lot to enter the temple. Gabriel appears and the forerunner of the Messiah is foretold. It’s all sounding completely Jewish and we could continue to see the explicit and tease out the implicit should we wish, but the Christmas story isn’t simply about the coming of the Jewish Messiah. It’s about a recalling the hints of the expansion of God’s people by the Messiah.
Consider, for example,Isaiah 49. The prophetic word opens entreating the “peoples from afar” to listen up. This includes you and I. Everyone should perk up when YHWH speaks to the nations. The prophet then speaks of the Lord’s servant “Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” Is this a redefinition of Israel? The Messiah as (an) Israel? He continues with a thrilling word:
“Is it too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel [? Yes]; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6).
This salvation is a person and he is the Christmas story. The wonder of the Christmas story is not only that the Jewish Messiah has come to “save his people from their sins” but that Gentiles are included so that this salvation is global in extent. What a wonderful surprise! The Gentile inclusion opens up a new whole new aspect of the work of the Messiah like one opening a door to an attic which had been shut up for ages. The treasures in that attic were there the whole time–hidden from eternity past?–but only recently (first century AD) brought to light. Paul calls it a “mystery” which has been made known by “holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit” (Ephesians 3:5). And as if we should start to wonder exactly what that mystery which has been made known is, he spells it out plainly:
“This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6).
Revisiting the attic analogy, Paul writes that “the mystery of Christ…was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed” (Eph 3:4-5). It’s not that the “mystery” wasn’t there but that it was just that, a mystery and it had to be revealed.
Praise be to God! The Christ child whom we celebrate this season makes this mystery possible and known!
With the mystery in mind, we shall look closely at a mystery-laden Christmas hymn commonly sung in churches during Advent, O Come, O Come Emmanuel. Familiarize yourself with the hymn if you’re feeling a little rusty since last year. I want to draw your attention to the refrain with which you will undoubtedly be familiar:
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
Note that the twice repeated “Rejoice!” is a command. You, rejoice! I’m talking to you. Who’s talking? Everyone singing? Sure, but more specifically, I think the speaker is supposed to be a Gentile. The last verse seems to imply this (“O, Desire of nations”) coupled with the third person references to Israel scattered throughout. So, we’ve got Gentiles singing. What are they singing? Of whom are they singing? Singing of Emmanuel…God with us…the Messiah. To whom are the Gentiles singing of the Messiah? To Israel!
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel employs Gentiles to sing of the Messiah to Israel. It seems kind of backwards doesn’t it? This is the partial hardening (Romans 11:25). Shouldn’t Israel be singing “Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come even unto you, O nations!” That’s what you would think; but the mystery changes our thinking.
When we Gentiles sing this hymn we should be overwhelmed with grief for unbelieving Israel. We should be overwhelmed by the fact that we are singing to them instead of them singing to us. We shouldn’t be singing at all, but Christ is such a great savior that we can’t help but sing and to all nations and most certainly to unbelieving Israel. Yes, we proclaim their Messiah and their salvation, but by the mystery and the mind-expanding work of Christ, he is also our Messiah and our salvation. We sing. We sing.
When Gentiles sing to Jews about the Messiah, may we be reminded of the Gentile inclusion, meaning that we who were not a people have been brought near by the blood of the final Passover Lamb who has expanded what it means to be the people of God and children of Abraham.
Hallelujah!
It could just be that the most important Greek word for the Christian man is found only three times in the New Testament. Paul Coughlin in his forthcoming book Unleashing Courageous Faith: The Hidden Power of a Man’s Soul claims that the average, emasculated Christian man needs to tap into what the Greeks called thumos, or courage. (Interestingly enough, English versions translate thumos in its three occurrences as “wrath.” Cf.Romans 2:8, Ephesians and 4:31 andRevelation 15:1.)
This book may have worked better (though it is still forthcoming and too early to tell for sure) on the heels of John Eldredge’s similarly-themed books, Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man’s Soul
Although, to quickly contradict myself, its message does seem consonant with a recent trend in evangelicalism toward encouraging boys to grow up and to be men. The Harris brothers’ Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations
The critique of Unleashing Courageous Faith I have to offer is much of the same offered concerning Eldredge’s work: a lack of biblical exegesis while drawing deeply from the well of cultural media (movies [in this case Wizard of Oz], songs, etc.). Coughlin’s observations and questions are on target while his response repeatedly returns to a need for thumos. He asks good questions but gives no timely answer based on Scripture, favoring instead the Greeks’ notion of raw man-courage. His proposed solution to the lack of masculinity which is based on Greeks, movies, Nobel prize laureates, and songs in the end proves burdensome when the solution that seems apparent to me is Jesus.
Yes, many have an effeminate Jesus in mind when they consider our Lord, but the solution is not to tap into a Greek notion of man-courage, but to study the ways of our Lord in the Scriptures. While tapping into thumos feels burdensome, there is one who says,
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:25-30).
This is a gender-inclusive mandate from Christ to examine his ways and learn from him. Would that the time spent meditating on the latent kernel of man-courage thumos be better employed studying the ways of Christ.
photo credit: Quasimondo
If Jesus is the redemptor and Mary is called by some a co-redemptrix and…
if a man who dominates is a dominator while a woman who does the same is a dominatrix and…
if a waiter can also be called a server,
can you call your waitress a servix?
“Hi, my name’s Tammy and I’ll be your servix today.”
What you reckon?
All I got to say is check out my massive, comprehensive tag cloud. I’ve just discovered how to make it display every single tag and not just the top 30 or so.
Initially my cloud displayed only thirty or so of the most popular tags using the following code in my cloud.php file:
- <?php wp_tag_cloud(”); ?>
But now using this code I’ve got it to print every tag:
- <?php wp_tag_cloud(‘number=0′); ?>
Number=0 stands for infinite and by infinite I do mean infinitely awesome. It does look a bit crazy but I love it.
Setting Up a Tag Archive/Cloud
Unsure how to set up your own tag archive or cloud page? The Wordpress Codex has got you covered.
