Daily Fragments: Botox, Superman Verse, Kidney Tests, Einstein, and the “Piss Christ”

Daily Fragments for 10/12/2012:

Quotations

The Parable of Botox: “Why, for example, did I presume to find fault with a woman getting Botox injections in her forehead yet think it was acceptable to pluck the hairs from my own face that threatened to create a caterpillar-like unibrow?”

Philippians 4:13 – the Superman Verse: “The ‘superman’ rendering of this verse is all too typically American. It is based on an assumption that we can accomplish anything we set our minds to, perhaps with a little help from above and a little luck.”

God Is Your Nephrologist:  “You cannot hide from God. Yet, you do not have to, because God is gracious toward you. He seeks relationship with you. God forgives and renews. He is not just the tester of our “kidneys,” but also the healer.”

Making Your Life Into an Altar: “In my mind’s eye I watch Abraham climb the mountain. Answering his calling. Wondering what the hell he’d done to deserve this misery, and where the whole thing that seemed so good had gone wrong. That’s how I imagine it.”

Einstein’s God Thoughts – and a Response: “As dumb as it sounds, maybe God can be that way out there incomprehensible force or whatever and still participate in human weakness. Maybe God likes it that way. Maybe the childish stories of the Bible show that. Maybe.”

The “Piss Christ” and Defending His Glory: “We could even say—dare we say?—that David’s Rightful Heir willingly chose to be the “Piss Christ”—the loving king who for three agonizing and humiliating hours became the world’s commode. This is what Paul meant by the “scandal” of the cross…”

The Kill List: “The power clings to the office, not the man, and it only grows, and overgrows. In a garden, if you leave something to grow too long, it will eventually burst and rot. As with tomatoes, so with power.”

Politics’ Generic God: “So, when politicians tell us they love God, we should take it about as seriously as we do when they tell us they love America, or freedom.  Remind them that love is something you do, not something you feel, and ask them to be specific about what service they offer their beloved.”