Interstitiality

Praise Band Begins

The Seabury praise band has started. We had our first meeting this past Friday. The four people who showed up represent a little less than half of the people who have expressed interest in the project. Les and Patrick supplied guitar work. I played the piano. Judith supplied excellent vocals. We are still getting used to each other, but we had a good time. We played some old ones, some not so old ones, and some goofy ones. We even played a little U2 (“40”). When we establish some chemistry, I think we will be pretty good. How we will work within the worship structures of Seabury…that’s another question.

You Can Put It on the Board

SOX WIN!!!!!!!!!

A Late Night

We had a number of folks (including Beth, Jane, Todd, and Ryan) over at our house last night to watch game three of the World Series. Also present was Roger, an exchange student from England. I think it was his first World Series game. He didn’t know what he was getting himself into…14 innings and five hours later, Sox win again! Five of us made it all the way to the end--about 1:30 CST. Great fun!

More Sports Sorry...

I know I have had a lot of sports on the brain lately...check that, I always have a lot of sports on the brain. Still, there were some great finishes in the sports world yesterday. Thank the heavens for DTV's NFL Sunday Ticket.

I had just got back from our pratice/scrimmage (our game was won by forfeit), to catch the last quarter of the late NFL games. Here is what I saw:

Channel 2: It looks like San Diego is going to kick a field goal that would put them up by seven points. This happened right after a SD drive that started when Andy Reid surprisingly decides to go for it on 4th and 1 deep in his own territory. He calls a bone-head play that does not work. SD has the ball and the momentum. The kick, however, is blocked. Philadelphia returns the blocked kick for a TD. Philly wins. Incredible!

I flip the channel...

Channel 708: Seattle, behind some great passing from Matt Hasselbeck, scores late in the game to tie the score at 10 pts a piece. Seattle botches their kick coverage and Dallas has a chance to get into field goal range. Drew Bledsoe proceeds to throw a pick with very little time left. Seattle returns the INT to the Dallas 32/33 yd line. Seattle kicks the game wnning FG with no time left. Unbelievable!

I flip the channel...

Channel 714: New York has been outplayed by the Denver Broncos most of the game. Jason Elam, the Denver kicker, misses a 49 yd. FG late in the fourth quarter. This turns the game. Eli Manning takes the Giants on a long drive. With seconds on the clock, Manning is dropping back further and further. At the last possible second, he throws a floater in to the endzone, where Amani Toomer leaps up and grabs the ball though he is surrounded by four on-looking Denver defenders. Touchdown! The Giants win! Amazing!

Cut to late last night (on Fox) Bottom of the 9th. Brandon Lidge on the mound (a lights out closer). Scott Podsednik, who had over 500 at bats during the regular season without hitting a home run, comes to the plate. He takes a 2-1 fastball on the inner part of the plate and deposits it into the right center field bleachers. Later, ESPN showed a shot of the White Sox bench, which sums it all up. As soon as the ball is hit, you see one or two players jump up with excitement. Aaron Rowand, however, Podsednik's counter part in center field, just stays there with his head on the rail of the dugout. You can read his lips. Over and over, he says, "No way, no way, no way." You can tell that he doesn't expect Pods to hit a HR in this situation. No one does. Suddenly, as the ball is apparently clearing the fence, Rowand's face is overtaken with shock. He starts jumping up and down in disbelief. You said it right Aaron: "No way, no way, no way!"

Way!

After Game Thoughts

First, let me extend a warm and sincere "thank you" to the folks at Nashotah House. The game was played as cleanly as a flag football game could be played, and the hospitality was generous and gracious, displaying all the virtues of Christian fellowship.

The Seabury Saints lost the 2005 Lavabo Bowl, 20-13. Last year we lost 21-20. That means the last two contests have been determined by a total of seven points. I couldn’t be prouder of our team. We left it all out on the field.

Nashotah knew we had a limited team. We had a total of nine players (you field seven). The Black Monks had a great game plan, and they took advantage of their strengths. In spite of a furious comeback, we fell short. There were a number of things that made this game difficult for us, some of which were not in our control:

1) We had a second half TD called back because of an inadvertent whistle. No one grabbed Mitch’s flags, but the head ref still blew the play dead. Mitch had already broken free and was running with no one within 15 yds of him. We did not score later in the drive.

2) On our last two plays the refs called back-to-back penalties on me for crossing the line of scrimmage. I have been playing QB for almost ten years. I know where I am at on the field. I was not even close to being in scramble mode. I was looking to pass. I was avoiding the rush by running wide, not by running forward. If I moved forward, it would have only been to step up in the pocket. My point: I’m not questioning that the ref. called what he saw. But IF I crossed the line (and that is in my mind a big “if”), I certainly did not cross by much, or I threw the ball right at the line, creating a judgment call for the line judge. The line judge would have had to be looking for that call (rather than offensive or defensive contact), literally watching my feet (because his back was to the line of scrimmage marker). In other words, it was close (if a call at all), and nit-picky, especially on our last drive on second and third down respectively. Both calls cost us big yardage and a loss of down. The last penalty resulted in a fourth and long after I had completed a 25 yd pass for a first down.

3) We had only nine players. NH was running both a full defense and offense, which enabled them to run a no-huddle offense. This philosophy wore us down.

4) We played with NH’s flags, not the flags with which we were used to practicing. There is a huge difference between pull-flags and belt-flags (pulling one of three flags pulls the whole belt off). We missed a number of flags on their early drives.

I want to be clear, I am not making excuses. NH beat us, and hats off to them for a great game plan and great individual performances. There were just a number of things that were working against our small but scrappy team.

I am very proud of these things:

1) After we made second half adjustments, we were able to shut down their running game, which killed us in the first half. NH failed to score in the second half after scoring 20 pts in the first

2) The Saints left every bit of their body and soul on the field. Everyone was exhausted, but everyone came up big when we needed them to.

3) Overall, NH had better athletes on the field, but our defensive scheme and our offensive play calling helped us to get big stops and big plays when we needed them most.

4) Even though we had a number of calls go against us at the wrong time (including the inadvertent whistle), our team kept their cool for the most part. We had one unsportsmanlike flag (following in my mind what was a very questionable tripping call—the QB slipped and fell). But the player was able to re-center himself and play really well.

Game balls all around:

Ryan H. deserves a lot of credit. This was his first game at center, and he played great, not allowing one dead ball penalty.

Ryan W. made a big play that was called back with the illegal forward pass penalty. He also continually ran the safeties off deep so I could hit some big plays underneath to Brad. He also had a huge sack in the backfield on a second and short.

Mitch had nothing left in his tank after making a 50 yd run (that was blown dead through the inadvertent whistle). He also ran the safeties deep. He gave his all.

Caroline caught an extra point. This was her first year of playing American football.

Roger caught his first TD. This was his first year of playing American football.

Ryan M. toughed out what looked to be a painful shoulder injury and made some big defensive plays

Jen had a big sack and put pressure up the middle all game

Brad had about 120 receiving yds, including one where he dove to get the ball down to the one yd line. He was on fire.

Great job Saints. Though this wasn’t a win, it had to be the best loss that I can remember having (if there is such a thing).

Again, and I say this because there has been some Nashotah traffic on my blog, I do not want to take anything away from the Black Monks. They beat us period. If we had played better, then we would not have had to depend on getting a few breaks. As a coach for our Saints, however, I can’t help but wish that we would have had a couple timely calls (or non-calls) and a couple of breaks go our way. We played hard, and I thought our team deserved a better result. I wish that the last drive would have ended in the players’ hands without any penalties, esp. a penalty that had to be a close judgment call (I will not be convinced that I passed the line until someone shows me a picture or video; it just doesn’t make any sense to me). It doesn’t matter what kind of miracle worker you are. You could be John Elway or Joe Montana--or even Vinny Testaverde for that matter--and you are not going to make many 4th and 20’s.

Word is Getting Out

(Thanks to Brad who "made" this church sign)

Found in Translation

Henry Martyn
Texts: Isa 49:1–6; John 4:22–26

“Something is always lost in translation.” I can remember my Hebrew teacher muttering these words out loud in front of our first year Hebrew class. “Something of the text is always lost when one translates from the biblical languages into a modern idiom. That is why it is so important for you to learn Hebrew, indeed to think Hebrew.” This way of thinking was certainly a good way of selling the importance of a biblical languages class to a group of hopeful undergraduate students. As I learned more and more Hebrew, however, I began to realize that learning Hebrew was only the beginning. In order to understand the Hebrew text it was also important to learn Greek for reading the Septuagint. One should also know the other biblical language, Aramaic. Then there is Akkadian and Ugaritic, and, of course Arabic. And even after I learned these languages, I still found myself lost in translation, never getting any closer to the “real” meaning of the bible or to a more pure translation of the text.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love to read Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic; and I would encourage any of you who have the elective space to take a biblical language. Learning language is a great, great thing. OK, I realize I am earning major nerd points by pushing this, but it’s true. Learning biblical languages will enrich your life. In fact, language acquisition and translation was the particular gift of the saint that we remember today, Henry Martyn. Martyn was a Senior Wrangler while at Cambridge, a title given to top mathematics students, who could “wrangle” (solve) difficult math problems. So for those of you who are looking for the key to learning biblical languages, the answer is right here: you must be a math geek.

In all seriousness... In spite of this, translation and the learning of biblical languages, as great a thing as it is, will not help you unveil some great mystery in the bible. I think sometimes we push this angle on biblical languages classes to get students in the seats, and it works because each of us is hungry for truth, for a closer glimpse of heaven, for that one idiom that will unlock God’s mysteries to us. But I think we have it backward. For we are not lost in translation, but indeed, we are found in it. To be lost in translation suggests that we are missing something. That we lack the pure speech that will help us to see clearly the mysteries of heaven and earth. To be lost in translation means that we are alienated from each other through the accidents of language; and this causes us to push harder to find that one word or phrase that will help us all to understand—that will pull all things together in a mother tongue. But that’s not what I hear in the testimony of Scripture. Sure Jesus speaks of worshipping God not on this mountain or that, but in spirit and in truth; but I don’t think that Jesus’ point is that God’s desire is to homogenize all peoples and languages into one spiritual idiom. The point that I see glaring at us from the gospel and from the passage in Isaiah is the necessity of the Other for seeing God. Jesus is able to make this proclamation in the context of his encounter with a Samaritan woman. What we get is a rare glimpse of Jesus’ particularity speaking to an other, a Samaritan woman, and in the process a vision of God’s kingdom issues forth from the Savior’s mouth. At the same time, the Samaritan woman is able to see God through the face of an ethnic other, a known enemy and social opposite, a Judean man. Likewise, in Isaiah’s 49th chapter we hear of a servant who will be a great translator of God’s salvation not only to Israel but indeed to all foreign others: “I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (49:6).

God is in the business of translation. And it is God’s voice that often comes through more clearly to us through the voice of an other, of someone who is other to us. Because ultimately we are not lost in a sea of conflicting and confusing idioms, but we are found in translation, for in Christ we are able to receive God’s ultimate translation. John’s gospel says it well: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” At this table, God translates God’s love for us. It is in the broken body and shed blood of Jesus that we experience this Holy Other, the translated one. Having been sustained through God’s feeding may we also seek to be agents of God’s translating work—to proclaim to the world with clarity the good news that is in Christ to a world that is overwhelmed by confusion and misunderstanding. Because ultimately I believe that we are all in the business of translation, whether or not know Greek or Hebrew.

To the Nashotah House Black Monks

I would like to thank the Nashotah House seminarians for hosting this year's Lavabo Bowl game. I am no Joe Namath and will not make a prediction, especially at my age. I am 39 year old QB for a seminary team. We are not athletic. We are not young. But, I have a good feeling about this year's game.

So, in a spirit of Christian love and fellowship, I offer these words to my able opponents:

As our Lord has said, "the first shall be last and the last shall be first." Rejoice, therefore, sisters and brothers at Nashotah House, for you will be first in the kingdom of heaven.

Enough

Enough with the media coverage on the umpiring in the American League Championship Series. I have a lot of problems with Fox’s coverage to begin with, but after the hype that the announcers created about umpires’ blown calls, I was almost ready to turn off the television. Give A.J. Pierznyski a break. He should not be front and center because of the controversies of which he was a part. He doesn’t want to be in the middle of that kind of attention. If you want to put A.J. in the middle of a story, how about highlighting the incredible job that he is doing calling games for the Sox pitching staff?

This whole “blame it on the umpire” garbage may make a good controversy in the media, but this angle on the game fails to recognize what happened after the play in question. Everyone is talking about the phantom dropped strike three in game two. But that’s not how the Sox won. That’s not how the Angels lost. Ozzie Guillen wisely pinch ran for Pierzynski with Pablo Osuna, and Kelvim Escobar, who does not hold runners very well, allowed Osuna to steal second base. Escobar then hung a curve ball on an 0-2 pitch to Joe Crede. Crede plastered the ball against the left field wall for the win. The umpire didn’t lose that game for the Angels, Escobar did. The umpires didn’t win the game for the Sox, Crede and Osuna did.

Of course this is not the first time that sport media writers, fans, or coaches have created scapegoats. Steve Bartman may have interfered with Moises Alou when the Cubs were in the 2003 NLCS, but it was Alex Gonzalez’s error on a sure double play ball, and the rest of the teams’ complete collapse that caused the Cubs to lose. In the 1985 World Series it was the Cardinals who collapsed in game six. Don Denkinger’s blown call at first base did not cause the loss nor did it contribute to the 11-0 blow out the next day at the hands of the Royals. Stop it with blaming the umpires. Enough of the scapegoating. We have enough Bill Buckners in the world already.

Sox Win?

I am not a huge White Sox fan, though I definitely pulling for them in the playoffs. Having said that, I think the Sox were very fortunate to win last night’s controversial game (see link if you don’t know about the incident to which I am referring).

I don’t have a strong opinion either way about whether or not Josh Paul caught the ball. What I WAS struck with, however, was the way in which Mike Scioscia, coach of the Anaheim Angels, handled the situation. It would have been very easy for him to blame the umpires for costing his team the game. He decided to take the high road. He repeatedly told reporters that the Angels simply did not play well enough, and that is why they lost. His team, argued Scioscia, had to play better in order to overcome the single play in question. The manager also tipped his cap to Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle for a terrific performance. That was classy.

I liked Scioscia as a player (I am after all a Dodger fan at heart). I have an even deeper appreciation for him now. This guy manages baseball the right way. In an age of power hitters and big egos and salaries, Scioscia plays the game the old-fashioned way. His players know how to bunt, how to move runners over, how to run the bases. They are solid defensively, and their staff and bullpen know how to pitch in spite of the fact that they do not have any real stars save Bartolo Colon.

I still hope the Sox win the series, but I tip my hat to you Mike Scioscia.

Bad Football Weekend

By my standards and definitions it is difficult to have a bad football weekend. Whenever I get to play football, watch football, or simulate football on a video game, it is a good thing.

This weekend, however, was a bad football weekend. First, I was knocked out of Madden Challenge in the first round. There were 600 people at this video game tournament. I would say that I could have beaten about 1/2 of them easily, and the other 1/2 it would be close. Due to some bad luck I drew someone who was in the latter category. I lost a close game 21-14. I was driving for the tying score when my starting QB got injured, which basically ended my chances.

Second, both of my fantasy football teams got beat this weekend. Ugh.

Third, the Rams lost to the Seahawks. I expected this, but it would have been nice to have something to smile about in my football world.

Last, the Seabury Saints intramural football team lost Sunday afternoon, 25-6. I threw 3 INTs. The only bright spot was a 60 yd TD pass. I'm still getting used to the co-rec rules at NU, which require our team to alternate plays between men and women. The problem with this rule is that on a "female" down, the other team is anticipating a run, pass, or catch from a female. This limits half of the options on the field (8 players = 4 male and 4 female), and both men and women defenders double team the women. It would be ideal if we had a female QB, but we don't. You can run as many "female" plays consecutively as you want, but you can only run one "male" play (i.e., only males throw or catch the ball) in a row. We can't even run an option play with females since a male QB cannot advance the ball past the line of scrimmage. I'm not a bad QB, in fact on some days I'm pretty OK, but any QB would have difficulty throwing into a sea of double teams. To add insult to injury, or more properly to add injury to insult, on the last defensive series, I and one of our female players collided. We knocked heads and her knee found its way into a fragile part of my male anatomy. OUCH!

Yup, all in all, a bad football weekend.

Game of Numbers

I have two numbers in my head right now: 1917 and (E)4.

The White Sox are very close to winning their first post-season series since 1917. Last night they came back to beat the defending champion Bosox.

The key play in the game was a gaff by Tony Graffanino, the Boston second baseman. In a play that brought back memories of Bill Buckner, Graffanino let a sure double-play ground ball go right between his legs. Error on the second baseman, E4. Sox (White Sox that is) win.

Past Weekend

Thanks to all of you who were praying for me and my family. My grandmother’s funeral was a moving tribute to her life. I co-officiated and preached. I think it was very meaningful for my mom and my grandfather that I was able to participate this way in the service. The UMC pastor, Brenda Sene was really accommodating. The church was packed, a testimony to the life of service that my grandma lived.

Michelle and I are both exhausted from the weekend. Between the three hour flight and three hour drive from Salt Lake to Idaho Falls (12 total hours of travel in 72 hours), we could probably use a couple days off to sleep.

Figures

You Should Learn Japanese

You're cutting edge, and you are ready to delve into wacky Japanese culture. From Engrish to eating contests, you're born to be a crazy gaijin. Saiko!