Weekly Meanderings 29 March 2014

Marvelous story about Andreian Payne and Lacey Holsworth, marvelous:

Adreian Payne and 8-year old Lacey Holsworth met each other two years ago in a hospital where she was being treated for Neuroblastoma, a rare form of nerve Cancer. The cliche of a star athlete visiting sick kids ended as soon as they met, and now Payne and “Princess Lacey” have become like brother and sister.

On the court Payne is a beast, I mean just look at his record setting performance in the first round of the 2014 NCAA Tournament.  Off the court, Payne has shown his heart is bigger than anyone could guess.

Adreian and Lacey were complete strangers prior to meeting in the hospital, but have become family over the last two years.  The two text daily and Payne has made sure that Lacey is part of his Michigan State family.  This was made obvious as Lacey helped Payne cut down the nets after the Spartans won the Big Ten Tournament.

Hank T-shirts are selling fast:

T-shirts featuring the Milwaukee Brewers impromptu mascot Hank the dog instantly became hot sellers Tuesday and are likely to become the all-time best-seller in a short-term period.

Hank’s star power is evident in the Brewers selling T-shirts donning his name and the number “K9.” The Brewers sold more than 1,000 shirts Tuesday when they went on sale and the team already has placed an order for more, Brewers chief operating officer Rick Schlesinger told me Wednesday.

Some sizes are sold out. The shirts are priced at $32.99.

The Hank T-shirts will eclipse the previous short-term big-seller, Nyjer Morgan “T-Plush” T-shirts in 2011, Schlesinger said.

In the UK, two kinds of law:

This is a first even for Islamist-friendly Great Britain. The Law Society has given “guidance” to all lawyers in Great Britain that would allow solicitors to write Sharia-compliant wills. In effect, this guidance creates a two-tier system of law for the nation; one based on secular principles and one on religious principles found in the Koran.

One lawyer called it “astonishing.” Another referred to the “undermining of democratically determined human rights-compliant law in favour of religious law from another era and another culture.” However you want to look at it, it marks the ascension and codification of a body of law inimical to western values and traditions.

Andrew Camp, Judas and Jesus’ form of hospitality:

So begins Jesus’ last night with his closest friends in which he washes their feet, shares Passover with them, inaugurates the Eucharist and gives them their marching orders for when he is gone.

What always astounds me about the Passover meal Jesus shares with his disciples is the very fact that Jesus decides to share it with his friends who are about to betray and desert him. Peter is there—the disciple who swears up and down that he will never, ever, in a million years betray Jesus. And we all know how that worked out for Peter. And yet Jesus still washes Peter’s feet and extends to him the bread and the cup.

But more astounding to me is the presence of Judas. The same Judas whom Satan had already convinced to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. And yet, Jesus, knowing all that was about to happen, still washes Judas’ feet and as far as I can tell extends the cup and bread to Judas.

I wonder how this passage can speak into our theology of personhood and hospitality. I wonder what this passage means for my theology of strangers, and even more so, my theology of enemies. Who are my enemies? What is my responsibility towards them? And bigger still what should the stance of the Church be towards those we disagree with?

I wonder when it comes to specifically the issue of homosexuality, which seems to be theissue for the Evangelical church right now, why is this passage never talked about? Shouldn’t the fact that Jesus washed Judas’ feet on the very night Judas betrayed him somehow inform what it means to be with others? And if so in what ways?

She can sell those cookies!

A nearly 30-year-old record for Girl Scout cookie sales has been crumbled by Oklahoma City scout Katie Francis, who so far has sold 18,107 boxes by asking anyone who crossed her path to buy some of the sweets.

“There’s three ingredients to selling cookies: There’s lots of time, lots of commitment, and I have to ask everybody that I see,” the 11-year-old said in an interview with the NewsOK Web site.