Beauty, the early church, and the first test

We've been talking about beauty, so I decided I'd look for
beauty on my drive. When I saw these cows in the harvested
corn field, I pulled over to take a picture. I remember how
happy it makes the cow to be let into the corn. My New
Testament professor and I were talking today about how
beautiful it is that God created animals with the ability to
express joy. We also talked about baling hay and walking
beans. Neither of those seemed to hold the same beauty!

I continue to see seminary as a gift from God to me. It's a lot of work and occupies many, many hours, but I'm learning a lot and growing with a community of people that I will cherish for the rest of my life I'm sure. This week, in Disciple Formation, we talked about beauty. We often think of God in terms of love and truth and justice, but forget that God is also true beauty and as we recognize beauty in creation, we are recognizing something of God.

Another thing I've been thinking about this week is what it must have been like to be part of worship in the very early Christian church. I'd never realized or considered, until recently, that the Gospels weren't written until after many of the New Testament letters had been written. All the early churches were operating without the Gospel writings, so when they gathered together, people would bring original hymns, prayers, and thoughts to spur one another on in faith. That's how we got some of the hymns in the New Testament texts. I think about how often many of us are reluctant to volunteer to prepare a devotion or scripture or prayer for a group even though we have so many resources to draw from! These early church people didn't have the resources we take for granted. I imagine they had quite an openness to the Holy Spirit that we would find refreshing (well, unless we find it scary). Anyway, it's been something good to ponder.

This week will be my first test in many years. It's in New Testament and will cover Matthew, Mark, the "synoptic problem", basic exegesis, and several New Testament literary forms like midrash, hymns, genealogies, miracle stories, proclamation stories, pesher, yada yada yada (no, that's not really one). I look forward to having the first test behind me, but studying for a test is a great way to practice articulating what I'm learning, so I welcome it.

I also did my first film review, you can see it here (spoiler alert: it spoils the film Room, so if you're going to watch it, don't watch the review). Without the having the text book we used, the review might not make as much sense as it did to my peers (and thus might be horribly boring), but I share it as a way to include you all in my journey if you're interested. Next I'll be working on a discussion guide, which will have different content than the film review, but over the same movie. It's been a challenge for me to think in a way that evaluates messages in art. It's not at all the 1s and 0s of my computer science training.

In other parts of life, I continue to enjoy working at church. I preached for the 2nd time a week ago. I have been working on my interview questions for an interview in December. At that interview I may be recommended to become a certified candidate for ordination, the first baby step in a long process. Also, Zoe enjoyed playing 8th grade volleyball this fall and is eager to start swimming again later this month. Lea is in tumbling for the first time and loves it. She lost a molar today. Both are doing well in school and enjoy time with friends. This is probably the best October ever for Ryan. Go Cubs Go!