212 Lent 1: Bittersweet
“All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth.“ ~ Psalm 25
Bittersweet
There was a rare convergence last week: St Valentine’s day fell on Ash Wednesday.. Or maybe the other way around. The next time the days fall together will be 2029, although that will be the last time it happens this century.
One Methodist group released an ad for Ashlentine (or whatever the portmanteau is) which makes me think we could do worse than pitch for memento mori candy:
Religion News Service called it a “curious marriage of holidays most sorrowful and saccharine” and pointed out the fleeting nature of human life and love. The article goes on to suggest ways to merge the celebration of both days, some of which are rather silly.
But the melding the two holidays, of love and sorrow, lavish gift-giving and repentance seems perfect for this season. The extravagance of Christ’s gift – his own life poured out for his beloved, his kindness that leads men to repentance – is incomprehensible to the human way of thinking. Sinners cannot comprehend the depth of their sin nor can they understand the breadth of God’s love. What madness to be comforted by the suffering of a dying man!
This comment from Pastor Fisk’s YouTube some time back..
Jesus taking our place on the cross is foolishness to those who seek to justify themselves. Yet the wisdom of God is always foolishness to men. He displays his love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Madness.
Scoffers will scoff, but where else could we go for comfort when the world presses in? When assailed by sin, the world and the devil, Jesus Christ’s word of life promises that he is near to the contrite, to those poor in spirit, who despair of their own righteousness.
A recent podcast from The Gottesdienst Crowd discussed the way some of our hymnwriters wrote about finding comfort in the death of Jesus, and it seems apt as we examine our own hearts:
Jesus, grant that balm and healing
In your holy wounds I find,
Ev'ry hour that I am feeling
Pains of body and of mind.
Should some evil thought within
Tempt my treach'rous heart to sin,
Show the peril, and from sinning
Keep me from its first beginning.
When I'm weak, your cross revives me,
Granting new life to my soul.
Yes, your comfort renders sweet
Ev'ry bitter cup I meet;
For your all-atoning passion
Has procured my soul's salvation.
God’s peace
Frisby
Lent
The steady work of Pastor Franson and his merry band of paladins and seminarians has resulted in this year’s MadPX Lenten Devotional. This is a wonderful, free resource to accompany your observance of the season:
A tool for Lenten self-reflection. (Good Shepherd, HT to Pastor Wolfmueller)
The Blitz
Crime and Punishment
A woman who opened fire in Lakewood church in Houston has been shot and killed by off-duty police who doubled as security. The details are as muddy as you may imagine with reports saying the shooter “had a history of mental illness, a string of arrests spanning nearly two decades.” She used several aliases including a male name, leading to reports that she was transgender. She had attended the church at some point when she wore a hijab. Writings confiscated from her home reveal she hated Jews. Pray for her young son who was critically injured in the shooting. (RNS, WNG, PJ Media)
Meanwhile, right-wing Twitter lit up with the news that Senate Democrats are considering a bill which would ban armed guards in churches. “So, does it deprive churches of private security? Not by name—because that would violate the First Amendment’s religion clauses. But many churches don’t hire official security companies but rather just let a few volunteers protect their grounds, and that is likely to run afoul of this bill, should it become law.” (Twitchy)
Police have ruled that a shooting at a parade celebrating the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl win was the result of a quarrel. One mother died and many were injured. Video shows a couple of brave men tackling the suspect to the ground. (USA Today, The Blaze)
Chicago’s Mayor, Brandon Johnson, has said the city will not renew its contract with gunshot detection company ShotSpotter. ShotSpotter uses AI and a network of microphones across the city to direct police to potential shootings. Police seem to like the system, but critics say it is not always accurate and has a racial bias. (US and World News)
Presidency
Donald Trump has been fined over $350m in a civil fraud case in New York which alleges he inflated the value of assets in order to secure loans. Trump will also be barred from running his own company for three years. While the lawsuit has revealed some “shady games” on the part of the Trump Organization, critics of the excessive nature of the case point out that there are no victims of Trump’s actions – he has repaid all loans and banks have insisted they want to continue doing business with him. Asked if business leaders ought to be concerned about operating in NY, governor, Kathy Hochul has insisted that companies needn’t sweat the ruling if they are “following the rules”. In an interesting twist, a bunch of truckers took to social media to say they intend to boycott deliveries to New York. (NBC, Hot Air, The Hill, Zero Hedge)
A prize witness in the Republican’s push to impeach President Biden has been charged with lying. The FBI said Alexander Smirnov falsely claimed that Joe and Hunter Biden were both paid $5m by a Ukrainian energy company. In related news, Tony Bobulinski a business associate of Hunter Biden has testified that he has no doubt that then vice president “Joe Biden was the brand being sold by the Biden family.” (Time, Just the News)
The soap opera unfolding in Georgia’s election interference case continued last week with Fulton County’s District Attorney Fani Willis testifying in her own defence. She and her former boyfriend Nathan Wade face a motion to disqualify them from prosecuting the case against Donald Trump. DA Willis testified against the advice of her legal team about the undisclosed relationship, wads of cash and “self-immolated” in a wild display. (Hot Air, The Transom)
Coming to America
Democrat Tom Suozzi has won a New York special election, replacing disgraced Republican Congressman George Santos who was ousted by the GOP late last year. Turnout was low but Suozzi won convincingly, with the commentariat attributing his win to talking tough about the southern border. (Semafor, The Transom)
Congress (or at least the Republican side) has voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his enabling of the border crisis. The move is likely to crash in the Democrat-controlled Senate. (CBS)
The border and the economy remain American voters’ top concerns according to a new poll. The poll indicates that potential voters disapprove of President Biden’s performance but also of former President Donald Trump’s “personal style/characteristics.” (Gallup)
Health, Medicine and Food
A grand jury set up by Florida Governor Ron De Santis recently released its first report finding that masks, lockdowns and vaccinations were ineffective and harmful. The governor discussed the findings in a roundtable with notable mandate dissenters including Stanford professor Jay Bhattacharya, Harvard’s Martin Kulldorff and podcaster Bret Weinstein. Considering the impact of mandated mitigation measures, the lack of investigation or accountability by media, government and public health establishment is quite jarring. In his opening remarks, Bret Weinstein said the transfer of wealth, the erosion of civil liberties and the increase in government control means we cannot “move on” from covid without holding people accountable and trying to prevent such tyranny from happening again. (Governor of Florida, Steve Deace) Full video of roundtable here.
A new study says a chemical found in Cheerios and Quaker Oats causes fertility issues in animals. Chlormequat is generally used on ornamental crops, but the Environmental Protection Agency has allowed amounts of the chemical on imported oats and other foods. (Forbes)
Animal or vegetable? South Korean scientists have invented “microbeef, ” a hybrid of rice and cells from cows to make a frankenfood they say will help tackle climate change and be handy for famines, militaries and even space travelers. Hard pass. (Science Direct, CNN)
Study says presence of certain proteins in blood may identify risk of developing dementia, fifteen years before it is clinically diagnosable. (Nature)
100 year-old Iranian man has taken an “exhibition dive” at 2024 World Championships in Doha. Taghi Askari won silver and bronze for diving at the Asian Games in 1951. (CNN)
Births, Deaths and Marriages
The 19 year-old son of former CEO of YouTube Susan Wojcicki has died in his dorm room at UC Berkeley’s Clark Kerr Campus. It is believed the young man became unresponsive after taking an undisclosed drug. Many on the Internet, including Rev Fisk noted how death from dangerous drugs is affecting families of every stripe and we need to pray against the forces that enable the deaths of so many through these terrible substances. (The Blaze, Rev Fisk)
The Digital Age
The United Kingdom and France have proposed a set of international guidelines to promote responsible use of [mostly Israeli] spyware. “Governments' efforts to crack down on malicious hacking software have largely failed — in part because the tools are popular with many intelligence and security services, including in democratic countries.” For its part, the US State Department announced it will restrict visas for anyone who has “profited from or facilitated the misuse of commercial spyware.” (Politico, Axios)
ChatGPT is getting a memory feature, a way to store things you’ve told it. OpenAI says its bot won’t store any sensitive information (such as health data) but privacy advocates are waiting to see how that promise shakes out. While we’re speaking of OpenAI, the company has released a prototype of its realistic video-generating tool. (The Verge, Kottke)
Can’t work in these conditions! Apple seems to be throwing a hissy fit, admitting to sabotaging its apps on European devices. Apple says it can’t get progressive web apps (PWAs) to work properly under recent changes in EU regulation. (Tech Crunch)
Air Canada has been made to honor a refund policy invented by its chat bot. (Wired)
An unusual use case for AI - bed bug detection. (The Hustle)
The FCC has banned unsolicited robocalls. (WNG)
The text that “runs the internet” is under threat from AI bots. (The Verge)\
Markets
Silicon Valley’s diversity hiring practices are unlawful. (The Industry)
Oof: Ride share company Lyft saw a boost in its share price after an extra zero was mistakenly added to its profit margin in a press release. (CNBC)
From the Mad☧Tank
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This week:
Recent stuff from our archive:
God’s Green Earth
“Someone is going to dim the sun, and it will be soon.” Apparently it will be by dumping sulfur into the stratosphere. Even though the climate alarmists overlook the fact that there’s one thing that’s much worse than a warm planet and that is a cold one. (Ben James)
Japan is experimenting with wooden satellites. The idea is to combat space pollution created by burning machines when they reenter the earth’s atmosphere. (The Guardian)
Hearts and Minds
The loss of trust in media uses up mental capacity as individuals do the work of verifying and investigating usually outsourced to institutions. “We should think twice…before trading the profound consequentiality of creaturely pursuits for the madness of tilting at every digital windmill which comes along. Our very lives depend upon it. (Salvo)
An interesting thought: “Creativity is perishable, just like inspiration. It has to be discharged regularly or it will spoil.” (David Heinemeier Hansson)
How do our brains keep time? (Big Think)
A Japanese way of working. (LifeHacker)
Arts, History and Sport
The puzzle of Rapa Nui’s (Easter Island) ancient language. (Atlas Obscura)
The 3-point shot isn’t worth what it used to be. (Futurity)
Last week in history:
270: St. Valentine executed. (History)
1898: USS Maine destroyed leading to the Spanish-American war. (Britannica)
1930: Pluto discovered. (NASA)
1965: Canada adopts its famous maple leaf flag. (Wikipedia)
War
Hamas data center found under UN Palestinian refugee agency’s headquarters. (Front Page)
Ukraine says it has blown up a Russian amphibious landing ship. (BBC)
Israel has killed three people in Lebanon in a retaliatory strike against Hezbollah. This is the latest in tit-for-tat attacks after a barrage of rockets were fired into Israel. (Financial Times)
Egypt’s border wall is pretty impressive. (PJ Media)
Stories from Far Away
🇷🇺Alexei Navalny, known as the most vociferous critic of Vladimir Putin, has reportedly died in an Arctic prison where he was being held. Navalny’s family have been asking for his body, but no one seems to know where it is. (The Free Press, Hot Air).
🇬🇷 Greece has legalised homosexual marriages. The head of the Orthodox Church, Archbishop Ieronymos, said the measure will “corrupt the homeland's social cohesion”.(BBC)
🇯🇵 Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is stepping up efforts to meet with North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un. Kishida hopes to secure the release of Japanese citizens abducted by NK decades ago. Japan’s economy dipped into a recession, so Kishida is hoping for a win elsewhere. (Financial Times, The Guardian)
🇳🇬Nigeria’s government is mulling the establishment of police forces in each of its 36 states. The move is proposed as a way to help national police contain violent Islamic groups. (Reuters)
🇵🇰 Pakistan’s two main political parties have announced they will join forces to form a government after neither one was able to secure a majority on its own. Independent candidates loyal to embattled former Prime Minister Imran Khan won the majority of votes despite a crackdown on campaigning for him, but would need to join a party to form a government. Authorities shut down the internet on election day, leading to accusations of vote-rigging. Khan is currently in jail for on charges of corruption. (France 24)
🇰🇪Kenya is mourning the death of rising athletic star, Kelvin Kiptum. Kiptum held the marathon world record and was on his way to smashing the two-hour mark. (BBC)
🇭🇺 The Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, is facing backlash after high-profile government resignations. President Katalin Novak and Justice Minister Judit Varga stepped down after the pardoning of a man convicted of concealing child sex abuse at a state-run children’s home. (GB News)
Quick Hits for the Eyebuds
👀The astonishing sight of migratory snow geese taking flight
🇺🇸 Spectacular images from America’s national parks
🎸 The guitar pedal database
🎨Artwork made using only a typewriter
✏️ Blackwing pencils: The return of cult favorite
📕 The Whole Booke of Psalmes of other beautifully-bound books
🇦🇪 Dubai unveils the world’s longest cantilevered building
⏩ What if you threw a baseball almost at the speed of light?
And because it’s President’s Day for our US readers:
🏛️The White House if it were designed by different architects
🍽️Ham mousse, cream of cucumber and other favorite dishes of US presidents
Promo of Friends
Lutheran Singles Cruise
Who: Lutheran Singles between the ages of 21-41.
Date: August 1-5, 2024 (Departs 4:00 pm Thursday, Arrives 7:00 am Monday)
Depart and Return: Galveston, TX
Ship: Mariner of the Seas
Don’t miss the Sons of Solomon Muster!
Join us on Memorial Day in Rockford IL to learn how you can start your local men's group and nurture Christian brotherhood. Come check out the Hebron Collegium, share your experience with praying the scriptures, and participate in the mutual consolation of the brothers. To RSVP or for more info, send an email to sos.113.487@gmail.com or reach out via the SoS contact page.
Schedule: Sunday - May 26th, 2024
4:30pm - 6pm: Jiujitsu open mat @ Hebron
6pm - 8pm: Dinner & Reading
8pm - 10pm: Prayer Vigil @ St Paul Lutheran Church
Monday - May 27th, 2024
9am - 11am: Coffee & Memorial Day Parade @ Downtown Rockford
11am - 1pm: BBQ @ Hebron
1pm - 4pm: Dialogue on Building Christian Communities
A Good Word: Links from the Show Notes
Friday night’s Stop the White Noise (YouTube, Rumble) was a solo show with Meridith holding down the fort while Jonathan fought off the lurgi. The show would have made St Valentine smile with lots of talk about marriage, love languages, kindness and kids:
The Kindness Challenge: Thirty Days to Improve Any Relationship by Shaunti Feldhahn
Mrs Fisk says she is aiming to read The 5 Love Languages of Children: The Secret to Loving Children Effectively by Ross Campbell and Gary Chapman and also
Wild Things: The Art of Nurturing Boys by Stephen James and David Thomas
Psalm 46 for all-out comfort
Our disclaimer: These are some resources the Fisks have found edifying, but when dealing with human-authored texts, apply discernment liberally!
Sweetness You May Have Missed
This Week Preached:
Podcast Release:
Two classics this week..
Let us pray. O Lord God, You led Your ancient people through the wilderness and brought them to the promised land. Guide the people of Your Church that following our Savior we may walk through the wilderness of this world toward the glory of the world to come; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
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the list of hymns from the Gottesdienst Crowd
https://www.gottesdienst.org/gottesblog/2024/2/1/ways-lutheran-hymns-train-for-martyrdom-hymn-list