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Friday, March 28, 2008

One and Only at This Sunday's Bible Lessons (March 30, 2008)

[These passes are designed to help all worshiping with us at Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio to prepare for Sunday worship. Because we use the Revised Common Lectionary, as slightly modified by Lutherans, I also hope that these brief ponderings will help others too.]

The Bible Lessons:
Acts 2:14a, 22-32
Psalm 16
1 Peter 1:3-9
John 20:19-31

The Prayer of the Day:
Almighty and eternal God, the strength of those who believe and the hope of those who doubt,
may we, who have not seen, have faith in you and receive the fullness of Christ's blessing,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

General Comments:
1. Last Sunday was the first in the seven-Sunday Season of Easter. The risen Jesus, the New Testament tells us, walked among and taught His followers for forty days following His resurrection. (Paul says that more than five-hundred of Jesus' followers, or disciples, saw Hims after His resurrection.) The Easter season therefore, incorporates forty days plus ten days, recalling the time between Jesus' ascension into heaven and the sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, traditionally described as the birthday of the Church.

2. This Sunday, as on all the Sundays of Easter, the only lesson from the Old Testament is the Psalms. Usually, the first lesson also comes from the Old Testament. But during Easter, the first lessons are drawn from the New Testament book of Acts. Acts is the second volume of Luke the Evangelist's two-volume work, the first being the Gospel that bears his name.

Acts gives the early history of the Church from the day of the resurrected Jesus' ascension through approximately 60-65AD. It recounts the tale of how a group of not especially reliable witnesses of Jesus' ministry, death, and resurrection carried the Good News that forgiveness of sin and new life belongs to all who believe in Christ first to their fellow Jews and then into the world beyond. Within thirty years of Christ's resurrection, the Church was becoming established and growing throughout the Mediterranean basin.

Acts says that this happened not because the first Christians were more able than others. Nor did they gain thousands of converts through power or coercion. The early Church knew the truth of Paul's affirmation that believers are their strongest and most convincing when they are weak, that is, dependent not on themselves, their own cleverness, or their native persuasiveness, but when they are utterly dependent on God's Spirit to give them strength and inspiration. This fact may explain why the Church of today is in the greatest risk of extinction in places where Christians are likelier to be more well-off and comfortable. Wealth and ease can delude us into believing that we are self-sufficient. In places like Africa and Asia, people know better. There, the growth of the Church makes Christianity, in 2008, the fastest-growing religion in the world.

The Lessons:
1. Acts 2:14a, 22-32: The first lesson is part of the sermon which the apostle Peter preached on the first Pentecost and that will be the first lesson on Pentecost Day in a few weeks.

In both of his New Testament writings, Luke, himself a Jew, perhaps writing to a predominantly Jewish audience, is at pains to emphasize the consistency between the Old Testament and the ways in which God revealed Himself to ancient Israel and the ministry of Jesus in New Testament times.

Foreign to Luke and the incidents he recounts both in his Gospel and in the ministry of the early Church is any notion that Jesus represents a "new covenant" (or a "new testament"). That's an idea gets more from reading John's Gospel.

In this lesson, as in Jesus' appearances to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, the emphasis is to show how Jesus fulfilled what God always planned to do from Old Testament times.

2. Psalm 16: In his sermon recorded by Luke in Acts, Peter quotes from Psalm 16, although he takes some liberties with the passage, presumably because, as happens when I teach classes sometimes, he's citing it from memory.

3. The psalm is called, "A Miktam of David." As explained by a note in The Life Application Bible, "Miktam comes from a term that may mean 'to cover.' It could mean a covering of the lips, a silent prayer, or a prayer to be covered (a plea for protection)."

4. What so intrigues me about this psalm is its emphasis on human volition in choosing one's god. (Our "god" is whatever is of ultimate importance to us. The Bible emphasizes that there is really only one God and urges all people to choose Him as their ultimate foundation and allegiance.) In verse 4, we're told, "Those who choose another god multiply their sorrows..." In verse 5, the psalmist declares, "The Lord is my chosen portion..."

5. 1 Peter 1:3-9: First Peter, one of my favorite books of the Bible, is a letter meant to be circulated among Christians living in Asia Minor, located in what is today Turkey and part of the Roman Empire. Traditionally, it's been believed that this letter was written about 62AD to Christians facing persecution and marginalization for their faith in Christ.

6. Here, Peter calls attention to how God can use our trials of faith to strengthen our faith, increasing our dependence on the God we know through Jesus Christ.

7. Verses 8 and 9 anticipate our Gospel lesson and may reflect Peter's memory of the very incident involving Thomas and Jesus that makes up part of it. The "outcome of your faith" in Christ, Peter tells believers who never saw Jesus, is "the salvation of your souls." The same promise belongs to believers in Jesus today.

The Gospel Lesson: John 20:19-31
19When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” 24But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

26A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” 28Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” 30Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

A Few General Comments:
1. This passage recounts the second and third appearances of the resurrected Jesus in John's Gospel. There is a fourth appearance to come, in John 21.

2. As Brian Stoffregen points out, in each of the resurrection appearances recorded by John:
...words and sight are important -- although neither Greek words: logos nor rhema are used. The first appearance ends with Mary announcing [aggello -- only occurrence in NT] to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord" and then telling them what Jesus had told to her (20:18).

The second appearance results in the disciples telling Thomas, "We have seen the Lord" (20:25) -- (the same words that Mary had used). The same word is used by Jesus to Thomas in v. 29: "Have you believed because you have seen me?" This suggests that believing involves more than just seeing the risen Lord. Each of these verbs is in the perfect tense, which implies a past action with continuing effect in the present. They saw something in the past and that seeing continues to affect their lives in the present.

The writer concludes the third appearance with his statement about the purpose of the declaration of his words in writing. The story does not end with "seeing the Lord," but by believing and sharing the message.
Verse-by-verse comments: v. 19: (1) The phrase "the first day of the week" is deliberate and significant. The creation motif is strong in the Gospel of John, starting with its opening echoes of Genesis' first creation account and the designation of Jesus as "the Word" who was both God and with God before the universe came into being. Jesus has come, according to both John's Gospel and the writings of Paul to usher in a new creation (Second Corinthians 5:17). The rabbis often taught that creation fell into sin on the seventh day and that God would renew His creation or create anew on a new first day, sometimes called the eighth day. (John also likes to speak of things happening on the eighth day or eight days later.)

(2) M. Craig Barnes, the wonderful preacher, suggests that disciples were afraid of their fellow Jews not just because of the possibility of their being killed, but also because they were ashamed for their disloyalty to Jesus.

(3) "Peace be with you" was a common greeting in Old and New Testament cultures. There is though, a particular irony in its use here and a particular need the disciples would have felt for God's peace.

v. 2o: (1) Jesus allows the disciples to see His wounds, confirming evidence that the full-embodied form before them is the Savior they had seen die.

(2) After satisfying themselves that this is Jesus and He is risen, the disciples rejoice. The only basis for joy that a Christian has--indeed, the only way people can call themselves Christian--is when they too, have their own satisfaction seen, for us through the eyes of faith, that Jesus is risen. Paul writes:
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. (First Corinthians 15:12-19)
v. 21: (1) Jesus underscores the peace that He gives by repeating this blessing to the disciples.

(2) Through Jesus, we're deputized and empowered to share the Good News as He had been. This echoes words from Jesus' high priestly prayer found in John 17.

v. 22: This is a sort of Pentecost, when you think of it. (Acts 2) The word spirit is pneuma in the Greek of the New Testament and ruach in the Hebrew of the Old Testament. Both words can mean wind, breath, and spirit.

In the second Genesis creation account, God breathes His ruach into inanimate dust and the first man comes to life.

In the first creation account, God's Spirit, like a mighty wind, bears down on the stormy waters of primeval chaos and life comes into being.

According to John's Gospel, when Jesus exhaled His final breath on the cross, He literally "gave up His spirit." (John 19:30)

Through the impartation of His Spirit, Jesus, God-enfleshed, creates the Church, the community of believers in Him who proclaim forgiveness of sin to all who repent and turn to Christ and the need for repentance and believe to all.

v. 23: "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Here, Jesus entrusts what's called "the Office of the Keys" to the Church.

Martin Luther explains this in The Small Catechism:
What is the Office of the Keys?
It is that authority which Christ gave to his church to forgive the sins of those who repent and declare to those who do not repent that their sins are not forgiven.
Christ not only conveys this frightening authority to the Church in John 20:23, but also in Matthew 18:18, where He says:
Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
v. 24: (1) Thomas' nickname, the Twin or Didymus, has often been seen as an indicator of "double-mindedness" on his part. This would fit well with James' New Testament admonition to believers who don't really believe:
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (James 4:8)
That's because Thomas always struggled with unbelief.

In John 11, with word already having arrived that the Jewish authorities are intent on having their Roman overlords execute Jesus, Jesus announces that His friend Lazarus has died and He must go to him and wake him from death. Thomas says to the others, "Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

Given what we know about Thomas, this isn't piety, but sarcasm. It makes no sense to him for Jesus to get closer to those who conspire against him. Nor does it dawn on him, in spite of all that he's seen to this point, that Jesus can raise Lazarus from the dead.

(2) We often often call the Twin, Doubting Thomas. But as Brian Stoffregen points out, the text, in the original Greek, never speaks of Thomas as one having doubts. The battle raging inside of Thomas throughout is instead, between belief and unbelief.

v. 25: An interesting question to consider is where Thomas was when Jesus first appeared to the others? I don't know the answer to that.

v. 26: (1) A whole week has passed; it's another first day of the week. Once more, Jesus transgresses locked doors, indicating that He is no longer limited by time and space as He had been before His death and resurrection.

(2) Once again, Jesus greets the disciples with the words, "Peace be with you."

v. 27: (1) Jesus goes directly to Thomas with the evidence of His resurrection. I think that there's an important principle at play here: If we want to believe, Christ will help us to believe.

(2) Jesus doesn't tell Thomas, "don't doubt." (Although that's not a terrible translation.) He literally says, "Be not faithless; be faithful." The point is that we must make a decision whether to allow God to create faith in us or not. We must cease and desist from our resistance and ask God to do this. We must put our dukes down and let God be God.

v. 28: To me, Thomas' response is so ironic. The faithless, double-minded one issues the most emphatic and all-inclusive confession of Jesus to be found in the Gospels: "My Lord and my God!"

v. 29: These words are really about all of us who haven't seen the risen Jesus (YET) and still believe in Him.

vv. 30-31: (1) I've called this the mission statement of John's Gospel.

(2) The unspoken implication here is this: I've told you everything you need to know in order to believe in Jesus Christ. To come to faith in Christ, we don't need more evidence; we only need to surrender! This is the choice of faith that Psalm 16:4 and 5 mention.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Is Wright Wrong? Part 1

I've withheld expressing any opinion on the pronouncements of Jeremiah Wright, former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago and Barack Obama's former pastor. One reason for this is that my schedule has been so busy lately that it wasn't until a few days ago that I'd had the chance to look at the videos everyone has been talking about.

In fact, I hadn't even looked up Wright's sermon excerpts until after I listened to Senator Obama's speech on race while working on some thank you notes the other night. So, to some extent, I've experienced this controversy in reverse order: first, Obama's call for racial conversation, then, Wright's incendiary sermons.

Earlier this evening, CNN gave heavy coverage to articles by Wright and by a Hamas functionary which appeared last year in Trinity's bulletin. Some of the comments were antisemitic. Others were anti-Israel and some anti-Italian, replete with racial and ethnic slurs. Let me hasten to say that talk like this has no place in Christian discourse. In the most famous passage in the New Testament, Jesus told Nicodemus that God so "love the world," that's everybody. (The universality of God's love does not mean that God accepts all human behaviors. God calls us to repent for our sin, to turn from it. If we want to hold onto our sin, with no intention of turning from it and embracing dependence on Christ alone, we cannot enter Christ's kingdom. See here.)

Furthermore, I've never understood how Christians could be antisemitic. The Savior we follow, Who we believe was both God and human, was Jewish. The Jewish people were the womb and cradle of our Lord. The first Christians were all Jews.

In the past, a disturbing lie developed among Christians, one embodied in certain Roman Catholic liturgies and in the antisemitic rhetoric of the founder of the Lutheran movement of which I am a part, Martin Luther, blaming Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus.* But anyone who looks at the New Testament accounts of Jesus' execution and the early Church's reflections on this event will conclude that the entire known world of Jesus' day--Jewish, through its leaders, and Gentile, through the Roman Empire--repudiated Jesus and called for His death. We all are responsible for Jesus' crucifixion. We all are culpable. The sins of us all are the reason that Jesus died. This point is well-underscored in the words of the hymn, Ah, Holy Jesus, which our congregation sang one week ago, on Good Friday:
Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon Thee?
Alas, my treason, Jesus, hath undone Thee.
’Twas I, Lord, Jesus, I it was denied Thee!
I crucified Thee.
Wright's comments are bound to cause Senator Obama further grief as he tries to nail down the Democratic nomination for president, both distancing himself from Wright's sentiments and embracing him as his spiritual "uncle." There are important questions to be considered when it comes to Obama's twenty year association with Wright. After so long an association with Wright, it will become increasingly difficult for people to believe that Obama was unaware of the seeming depths of Wright's prejudices.

But I will lay the political questions aside. To me, the far more important questions raised by the Wright debacle are spiritual, particularly the effect the former pastor's incendiary rhetoric has had on the public's perceptions of Christian faith and whether his sentiments represent Christianity.

In an intriguing column, Martin Marty, a grey eminence of my own Lutheran movement, talks about his long association with Jeremiah Wright. Wright was a student of Marty's at the University of Chicago. He describes a warm association that included frequent visits to Trinity, where he and his wife, both white, were welcomed lovingly. He describes sermons in which he heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ--what Christians scholars call "the kerygma": the good news that God so loved humanity that God the Son entered our world, submitted to universal condemnation by the human race, died on a cross, and rose from the dead to give life to all who turn from sin (repent) and trust in Christ as Lord.

This kerygma has animated the Church's ministry for two-thousand years. It's a message that assures all people that we can be reconciled with God, enjoying relationship with God and others today and in eternity. All are sinners in need of a Savior; Christ is a Savior for all people. The apostle Paul puts it this way in the New Testament book of Romans:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.” (Romans 1:16-17)*
This proclamation, says Marty, was central to every sermon he ever heard Jeremiah Wright deliver.**

That's an important statement, especially coming from a Lutheran. If you're at all familiar with the Lutheran theological tradition, you know it began with theological concerns, concerns that the Word of God as seen on the pages of the Bible, was being shunted aside or not given its proper place as--in phrasing most Lutherans know or have heard a million times--"the authoritative source and norm of our life, faith, and practice." One of our confessions affirms that the Church can be identified as the Church solely because in it, the Gospel is rightly proclaimed and the Sacraments are rightly administered (Article 7, The Augsburg Confession). Lutherans have always been sticklers for the belief that when anyone dares approach a pulpit when God's people assemble for worship, the Gospel--the Good News--and the Word of God must be proclaimed. According to Martin Marty, he heard Jeremiah Wright adhere to that injunction whenever he preached at Trinity United Church of Christ. That is something to be considered as we delve into Jeremiah Wright's disturbing statements.

But there seem to have been other messages being sent by Jeremiah Wright and Trinity over the past thirty years. What were those messages? Were they at variance with Christian teachings and belief? I hope to look at these and other questions over the next several days.

*I was a voting member at the Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) when we repudiated the antisemitic writings of Martin Luther and apologized to the Jewish community for them. Luther's antisemitic writings were never part of the confessional documents of the Lutheran movement, although his antisemitism both reflected sentiments extant in Germany in the 16th.-century and later and may have provided philosphical undergirding to the tragedy of the Third Reich.

**Marty also repudiated Wright's close association and commendation of Louis Farrakhan and his belief in the notion that the US government created the AIDS virus to infect African-Americans. He also reserves the right to more harshly adjudge Wright with the development of more information.

***The quote is from the Old Testament, Habakkuk 2:4. The idea is that we are called righteous, right with God, not because of our moral rectitude or our membership of a particular ethnic group, but solely because we repudiate our sin and trust in the God revealed first to Israel and, we Christians believe, ultimately in Jesus of Nazareth.

[FOR MORE: Go here.]

I'm Totally Burnt Out on the Presidential Campaign

It looks like I'm not the only one.

The way I see it, on the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton cannot win the nomination and is unelectable...too many negatives...and Barack Obama has been rendered equally toxic by the Jeremiah Wright debacle. But those uncommitted superdelegates just might save the day for Dems, after all.

Here's how: The superdelegates could remain uncommitted through the first ballot of the convention. Neither Obama or Clinton would then have enough votes to win, freeing their delegates to go elsewhere on the second ballot. The sd's, ostensibly leaders of the party, then could reveal their choice, maybe Bill Richardson or Joe Biden. The convention could spend a ballot or two moving in that direction and then, after nominating the sd choice, give the vice presidential nomination to, say, Dianne Feinstein.

Of the three finalists on the Democratic side--Obama, Clinton, and John Edwards, the Senator from Illinois had the most substative experience, both in terms of time in elective office and relevant leadership experience. But the credentials of all three can't compare to those of Richardson, Biden, or Feinstein.

I shared this bizarre scenario with my son on Tuesday. Yesterday, in a comment on one of my posts at The Moderate Voice, someone else mentioned the same fantasy.

It isn't likely to happen. But, to quote the Animals, "we've gotta get out of this place" and this scenario may be the only thing to free us from this crazy, nasty, brutish campaign.

Last year, before the presidential campaign turned him once more into a Clinton attack hound, James Carville lamented his party's penchant for stealing defeat from the jowls of victory. By this pre-convention campaign, the tone of which both he and his former boss so sanguinely endorse, the Democratic campaigns seem intent on giving John McCain a pass to the White House and making Carville look like Kreskin.

Assuming that neither Obama or Clinton go to the convention with enough delegates to win, an intervention on the part of the superdelegates may be the only thing that can salvage Democratic prospects.

Until then, as it relates to the presidential campaign, I'm tempted to go on sabbatical. Maybe I'll go to Australia.

[UPDATE: I acknowledge that what I've written here is fantasy and have been on record since the day after the Iowa caucuses as saying that Obama will win the nomination. But I had no way of knowing at the time how bad things would get for him or how long the fight with Clinton would continue.]

It's Good to Know That He's the Same Guy He Always Was

I've written before about my long-ago acquaintance with Sherrod Brown, Ohio's junior US Senator. Brown was a very young member of the Ohio House of Representatives when, in 1979, I spent a year as Supervisor of Pages. He was always personable and without pretense, in spite of having won election to the House at a very young age and his obvious intelligence, two things that could have made one so young a bit full of himself.

Yesterday, after not running into Brown in twenty-eight years, I had the chance to speak with him. I'd been asked to participate in a community leaders roundtable, the ninety-first such event that Brown has held around the state since becoming Senator in January, 2007.

Frankly, I had little to offer, having only been in Logan for about five months (though a resident of Ohio for all but about a year-and-a-half of my 54-plus years.) But it was encouraging to see that Brown is still the cheerful, warmhearted, and personable character he always was. I also liked the fact that his shoes were even uglier than mine, these dimpled black things with suction cups on the bottom. "They're comfortable," he said simply.

Sometimes officeholders ensconce themselves in arrogance and pomp. And sometimes, those of us who observe them ascribe nasty motivations to them. But first and foremost, these people are people. It appears that Brown hasn't forgotten that and that's refreshing.

I don't know that Brown got a lot out of the meeting that he didn't already know, although I was incredibly impressed with the knowledge and the dedication of the community leaders present. They included agency directors, some county and community elected officials, businesspeople, and so on. This too, was an important reminder. Sometimes, wherever we may live, we think that the most capable people are "someplace else." What I saw yesterday underscored the fact that often, they're "right here."

As for what our community got from Sherrod Brown's visit, I would say that most of all, it got the sense that its junior United States Senator is willing to listen to them.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

We're Number 65?

It's derisively called the "Not Invited Tournament." Its winner is said to be the sixty-fifth best team in the country for its failure to make it into the NCAA tourney. But this Buckeye fan would be extremely pleased if Ohio State's young team with a great future won the National Invitational Tournament (NIT). The team took a step toward that goal with yet another win tonight.

Should Senator Clinton Withdraw from the Race for President?

Liberal Democratic blogger Deborah White delivers a scathing denunciation of Hillary Clinton, saying that it's time that the New York Senator withdraws from the presidential race:

How could anyone seriously believe that, after the brutal and dishonest behavior of the Clintons since Super Tuesday, February 5th, that the American people, exhausted by the brutal and dishonest Bush administration, would lift Hillary and Bill Clinton up to electoral victory and return them to four more years in the White House? How could anyone seriously believe that Obama supporters would now vote for Hillary Clinton in 2008 (or possibly ever)?
Such fantasies defy good common sense and all rules of logic.
Yeah, this race is so over. The only remaining question is... what Democrat possesses the backbone and requisite muscle to tell the Clintons that it's over, and to enforce it?

Read the whole thing.

I'm not interested in the validity of White's arguments per se. I don't do endorsements around here.

What's so striking about White's column is that she is such a reasonable person, not given to lashing out at fellow Democrats. Her anger may be some indication of the antipathy rank and file Democrats are feeling these days. If White's column measures many of her fellow Democrats' sentiments, they want the nomination fight to be over so that they can fight Senator John McCain.

Clinton's supporters have been saying that the Senator should remain in the race at least until "the remaining ten states have been heard from." But will that enhance the Democratic nominee's chances in the fall? Increasingly, that's the question that people like White are raising. But will the people to whom Senator Clinton is likely to listen raise it?

Sunday, March 23, 2008

How Faith Comes

[This Easter sermon was shared during worship services with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, today.]

Matthew 28:1-10
A young preacher was going through a crisis of faith. His ministry as an evangelist was growing, but he was beginning to have doubts about God’s existence, about the veracity of the Bible, about the reality of Jesus’ resurrection. It didn’t help that a friend of his, another young evangelist described by the first young man as “the best preacher I ever heard,” had lost his will to believe. A superficial reading of science had led the second young preacher to reject God. “Nobody believes what you believe any more,” he told the first young preacher.

It was a hard time for that young man. The beliefs on which he’d built his life seemed to be crumbling around him. Then, one night, on a walk through a field in southern California, he fell to his knees. He cried out to God as he clutched his Bible with desperate hands. Lord, he said, I don’t understand everything in this book. But with your help, I will trust the message on these pages. I will trust that there is a God Who so loved the human race that He entered our human story, died on a cross for our sin, and then rose from death so that all who believe in Him will never die, but be with you for all eternity.

That proved to be a turning point in the life of the young preacher. From that moment forward, Billy Graham's faith grew stronger.

Sometimes, I think, we have the wrong idea about faith in God. We think that we have to convince ourselves or get worked up with an ocean of goose bumps. But faith is not something we can manufacture. We can’t educate ourselves into it, like we do with the multiplication table or the conjugation of verbs. We can’t hold our own little pep rallies in order to create the feeling of faith within us. Faith--which is just another word for trust--isn’t something that comes naturally to we human beings.

Not even trust in God. Especially not trust in God. Ron Hals, one of my seminary professors, captured this human tendency to distrust God when he used to tell us, “You all say you would love to have been around when Jesus performed a miracle. But it’s just as likely that you would have watched Jesus turn water into wine or bring back a man from the dead and told him, ‘Do that again. Slower.’”

Faith in God, in the God of Easter, in the risen Savior Jesus, is God’s gift to those who are willing to believe. This may explain the really strange thing that happens in Matthew’s telling of the story of the first Easter morning.

Each of the four Gospel writers—Mark, Luke, John, and Matthew—tell us about what happened on the first Easter in their own ways. They differ on some of the specifics. That has never bothered me. If all four of them agreed on every single detail, I would smell a conspiracy. As it is, I smell the truth.

Be that as it may, one of the details that interests me in Matthew’s account is this. An angel tells Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, who have gone to the tomb on the first Easter, “Go quickly and tell the disciples He [Jesus] has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see Him.’ This is my message for you.”

At that point, the women hadn’t seen the risen Jesus. They were told that if they and Jesus' other folowers traveled the sixty miles to Galilee from Jerusalem, they would see Him for themselves. Granted, the earthquake they experienced at the tomb, the fainted guards, and the angel lighting on the stone that had been rolled away all were pretty impressive things, signs that could point them toward belief. But Jesus’ followers had seen and heard lots of impressive signs of Who Jesus was in the preceding three years. Still, they hadn’t really believed when Jesus told them He would die for the sins of the world and rise to give new life to all the repentant who believe in Him. When Jesus breathed His last on the cross, they were as hopeless as atheists, as forlorn and defeated as anyone who turns their back on God.

Who knows what the women actually believed at that moment? All we know for sure is this: They were willing to believe. They were willing to trust in the message given to them about the Lord they had seen murdered just days before. They were willing to believe that He was risen from the dead. We know this by their response to the angel’s message: “They left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell [the] disciples.”

Someone has said that the mixture of emotions that the two women felt as they ran from the tomb—fear and great joy—is like that mixture of emotions felt by brides and grooms as they prepare, hearts pounding out of their chests, to walk into a church sanctuary on their wedding days. They have no idea what the next fifty or sixty years may bring. They have no certainty that they can trust either themselves or their beloved to be worthy partners in life. But they’re willing to trust that no matter what—in sickness or in health, in good times or in bad—that their marriages will work.

The women, like a couple about to be married, didn’t know what the future might bring. They had no more certainty than Billy Graham did that night he threw himself on God’s mercy, that Jesus had really conquered sin and death for all who dare to trust in Him. But they were willing to trust and so, their hearts pounding from their chests, they ran to tell the disciples that the angel had said that Jesus was alive.

But a funny thing happens in the lives of those who are willing to believe. They learn that the old saying is completely wrong. Seeing isn't believing. Believing is seeing!

The president of Trinity Lutheran Seminary during the years I attended there was Fred Meuser. Once, shortly after I started seminary, Dr. Meuser took six of us who had begun our training in the middle of an academic year, out for lunch. We asked him to tell us about himself, especially about how he came to faith in Christ. “There’s no drama in my faith story,” he told us. “I grew up in a Christian home. My father was a Lutheran pastor in churches all around Michigan.” At that, I thought I saw tears well in Fred's smiling eyes. “I don’t remember a time when I didn’t believe in Jesus,” he told us. Nurtured in faith from the time he was a baby, Fred had never rebelled. He had always wanted to believe in Jesus and he found that God builds faith in those who are willing to believe.

Many of you know something of my own faith story. In my teens and early twenties, I considered myself an atheist. Then, I married this Lutheran. The faith I saw in Ann and all the wonderful people of the congregation that became my home church made me want a piece of that action. I wanted to know and follow Jesus! I wanted to believe, but frankly, a part of my skeptical mind rebelled even after I'd made public professions of faith. I wanted to believe, but still didn't fully.

Then, one night a strange thing happened to me. I had a dream that I remembered. That almost never happens. I dreamed that I was walking down a street. Nobody else was there. Nobody, that is, except for one figure who kept walking closer and closer. Ultimately, he approached me and I could see that it was Jesus. No words were spoken. In my dream, Jesus simply reached out His arms and pulled me to Himself. That was it. I remember waking up with a smile on my face. My willingness to believe in Jesus had become faith.

When the women ran from Jesus’ tomb, the Lord they weren’t supposed to meet until they were in Galilee showed up. Matthew writes: “Suddenly Jesus met them and said ‘Greetings!’ And they came to Him, took hold of His feet, and worshiped Him…” God creates faith in those willing to put their dukes down and simply let God love them! When we allow ourselves to trust in Jesus that we see Him, see His grace, see His power, and see His love working in our lives. There are many people in this sanctuary this morning who can testify to that truth!

As a pastor for twenty-four years now, there is one single statement I’ve heard from people more than any other. It comes in various versions. But it’s the same statement nonetheless. Atheists will tell me, “I just can’t bring myself to believe.” Faithful Christians will tell me, “My faith isn’t strong enough.” Or, “I’m not close enough to God to be a witness for Christ.” These statements all betray a single, common, human, and very understandable misconception. They all see faith as something we do, as the product of our effort.

But the Good News of Easter is that Jesus has done everything necessary for our salvation. The Father sent the Son. The Son died and rose for us. The Spirit works in the wills of those who are willing to believe.

The women who ran from the tomb to share the message of the first Easter learned what every believer in Christ has learned these past two-thousand years: If we are willing to believe, God will build faith within us. God will help us live in the certainty that the risen Christ gives all who believe infinite, indestructible forgiveness, life, and hope. God will build certainty in us that a risen Savior is by our sides in all that comes to us in this life and He has the power to give us life beyond the grave.

If you and I are willing to believe—willing to meet the risen Jesus in worship, in the fellowship of believers, in the Sacrament, in the Bible, in prayer, in service in Jesus’ Name, our faith will grow. Our faith will invite others to follow. Our faith will show the world that there is a Savior Who died, but has risen. Risen indeed! Happy Easter, everyone.


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Kids or corporations – who’s looking at your data?

July 13th, 2011 | 3 Comments

Once upon a time, conventional opinion was that major cyber-attacks required major resources, such as those available to foreign governments seeking to damage their targets. These opinions are out of step with today’s reality. Michael Chertoff, former DHS secretary, told attendees during keynote remarks at the 2011 Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit that in recent years he has seen technology evolve to the point where government resources aren’t needed to launch large-scale information security attacks.

Recent attacks have sometimes involved small groups or even teenagers, possibly acting alone, such as this 19-year old recently arrested in England as a suspect.

Before you think this is only about teenagers, know that corporations get involved as well. The following case, (and here the corporation is not the victim but the alleged perpetrator), involves News Corporation ($32 billion in revenue) and its British tabloid News of the World.

Apparently, the newspaper had for years made a habit of hacking the mobile phones of celebrities, politicians and crime victims to spice up the contents of its reporting. News Corp has basically admitted guilt by their decision to shut down the newspaper permanently. This still leaves the News International paper, also owned by News Corp. who specifically targeted the British Prime Minister:

Hackers operate under a rather murky set of ethics and codes of conduct. Corporations practicing industrial espionage may believe that the end justifies the means. Individual hackers may see themselves in a “Robin Hood” role, but who their beneficiaries are is difficult to say. Sometimes they like to be viewed as performing a valuable service, such as this group warning of a weakness in Apple’s developer website. Hard to say if this will help Apple more than it would help others immediately exploit the weakness:

Obviously there is no more room for complacency in today’s security world. Information piracy has evolved to a new level and become accessible to many more participants. Experts are increasingly saying that many recent high-profile breaches have not even involved any advanced or groundbreaking techniques. And now you don’t know whether to be on the lookout for a teenage intruder, or a corporation with substantial resources, who is testing the defenses of your networks.

Security administrators have to similarly step up their game.

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What do these battleships have to do with cyber security? The large, cumbersome ships are being successfully attacked by smaller, faster boats, just like corporate enterprise systems are being raided by cyber pirates.

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Thursday, October 19, 2006

Chocolate Steam Pudding @ Alexis Bistro, Bangsar Shopping Centre, KL

Yesterday, we indulged in some wicked Chocolate Steam Pudding with Vanilla Ice Cream (RM10++) to celebrate good news we received. This is currently my favourite indulgence as the steam pudding is not too rich but still chocolately enough to make it feel sinful.

They have a wide selection of cakes and desserts here so do take your pick from: apple pie, banana cake, banoffee pie, black and white chocolate, blueberry cheesecake, bread and butter pudding, carrot cake, cheese cake, chocolate banana mascarpone, chocolate berries meringue, chocolate bittersweet, chocolate brownies, chocolate cinnamon, chocolate moist, chocolate mousse, chocolate silk, chocolate walnut, italian cream cake, mango cream pie, mixed fruit meringue, orange and almond, pavlova, peach and banana crumbe, pear and ginger upside down pudding, pecan pie, tiramisu, zucotto dome and etc. Note that not all desserts are served at one time hence it's always advisable to call them ahead to check what selections they have available for the day.

Besides desserts, the main meals are great too especially the Sarawak Laksa, Mee Siam, Chicken Rice and pastas which are old favourites whenever we visit the bistro.

Alexis Bistro
Lot F15A, First Floor
Bangsar Shopping Centre
Jalan Maarof
Kuala Lumpur

Tel No: 03 - 2287 1388

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from the restaurant for writing this review.

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babe_kl said...

loved their cakes. hubby's all time fave is the tiramisu. so far havent seen this steamed pudding on their shelves, must try them when i see it since my boiboi loves choc cakes

the yUmMie dUmMieS said...

I love your site! it certainly shows me loads of m'sian goodies available. was drooling when i was going thru the ramandan pics :P
gonna link you up :) btw, any nice food places in JB?

may said...

as many times as I've heard how great their desserts are, I've never really been to Alexis to eat them! LOL! ok, this definitely goes onto my list of must-try before the year is out!

Anonymous said...

boo, thanks for this chocolate steam pudding review.. i shall try it da next time i make a stop @ alexis... *drool* hmmm... by da way, i wonder how did u manage to capture this pic without using flash as it's quite dark inside....

Wandernut said...

I was there on Saturday afternoon and had their Salad Nicoise (RM22). IT WAS AMAZING.

Very fresh sashimi quality tuna, seared just nicely, on a bed of green beans, new potatoes, a perfect, wobbly soft boiled egg, with honey mustard aoli as well as an earthy balsamic dressing... so goood.

Yesterday I ordered the same thing at Pizza Uno Centerpoint (RM18.50) and it was FAR FAR behind the quality of Alexis's. The dressing was too sour, too sweet and they were so skimping on the tuna, which wasn't as fresh too.

I didn't have my camera with me or I'd take a pic and blog about it.

Fulltime Mom said...

A review just in time. I'll be there tonight and hope they will have the pudding!

boo_licious said...

babe - yeah, tiramisu is also an old favourite but I must admit this choc steam pudding is fast replacing it since it's so light tasting.

the yummy dummies - sorry, no review for JB spots yet as I seem to only go there for quick trips.

may - give the desserts in Alexis a try, yummy stuff.

meiyen - yeah, that place is so dark all the time. I changed the ISO on my camera and the white balance to get this pix. Those settings work well for low light conditions.

wandernut - everything always taste yummy at Alexis. So far, yet to have any complains whenever we eat there.

fulltime mom - hope u enjoy yr meal. That place is super dim at night.

myCoffee said...

One of my favourite old-time haunts as well, the one on Telawi. Must-haves include their milky latte (particularly great to wind down a long day/nght), banoffee pie and bread pudding. Food-wise, I heard that their old staples had slipped compared to the early days.

Audrey Cooks said...

waaah this is one must have dessert! what a killer pudding! Killer for my waistline!!! if there is any left!

boo_licious said...

mycoffee - yeah, food is not as fantastic as last time but still not too bad.

audrey - it's kinda like a steamed choc cake. Nice esp when it's warm.

joe said...

anyone been to music nights at alexis in ampang?

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"Sesame Street" E-Book Hits iPad and Chrome Web Store Simultaneously [VIDEO]

Earlier in the week, ScrollMotion released a new Sesame Street e-book simultaneously for the iTunes App Store and for the Google Chrome Web Store.

Over the last year, nearly a dozen Sesame Street e-books have been released for the iPhone and iPad, but this is the first title Sesame Street has released for Google Chrome.

With Chrome 9, the Chrome Web Store is now available to all users in North America. That means users can install free or paid web applications for use across machines and even on the CR-48 netbook.

Built using HTML5, this is ScrollMotion's first Chrome Web Store release. When we talked to ScrollMotion last fall, co-founder Josh Koppel told us that because the company can build apps using an HTML5 base, porting those apps to other platforms — in this case the Chrome Web Store — is much less complicated.

Bert and Ernie: What's Cooking [iTunes link] is $2.99 for iOS (it works on both the iPhone and iPad) and $1.99 for Google Chrome.

The story book is cute — read by Gordon from Sesame Street — and the iOS version includes the option for the reader to record his or her own voice for playback. Both versions of the app include options for reading along and for coloring digital images of Sesame Street characters.

We bought the Chrome app to give it a spin and while the quality of the book and voice recording is good, we still think the desktop reading experience leads a bit to be desired. To us, it underscores why the iPad, iPhone and future Android tablets will have so much of an advantage over the CD-ROM children's book of the 1990s: touch matters. Touch controls makes interacting with content more natural and makes the overall experience more engaging.

The promise of HTML5 is that the apps will be usable on other devices. Just imagine how cool it would be if Chrome web apps could work on Honeycomb. That might not be in the cards for the immediate future, but we expect to see some sort of fusion between the two platforms at some stage.

In the meantime, this is just one more example we can chalk up to the iPadification of the web.

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Touchscreen Makes Its Way Onto Keyboard of the Future

Touchscreen keypads seem to be progressively taking over the old-fashioned keys on our devices such as phones, tablets and ebooks. But the touchscreen keypad has now made its way to the computer — with the "keyboard of the future."

The Keyboard "ABC," created by designer Iaroslav Neliubov, features a touchscreen surface that can be configured to any language with customized keys. It has a built-in CD/DVD drive, SD memory card reader and USB port to make storing files easier. The keyboard's most appealing feature is its ability to change color with just the touch of a finger.

The keyboard also has built-in sound dynamics and is supposed to work well with left-handers. Take a look at the gallery below to see the sleek, black polished device. Could this be the keyboard of the future?

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Office for iPad: Why It Would Make Sense for Microsoft

office-for-ipad-daily-600If the rumors are to be believed, Microsoft is on the verge of releasing a version of Office for the iPad.

While an iOS version of Office may have seemed unthinkable a couple of years ago, it could be a key weapon in Microsoft's fight against Google Docs, Google's free cloud-based productivity software.

The Daily reported Tuesday that Microsoft is expected to launch Office for iPad in the coming weeks. Citing "sources"along with an image of the app's home screen, the report says Microsoft will soon submit the app to Apple for inclusion in the App Store. An Android version is reportedly not in the works.

Having a version of Office for iPad would give users a way to stay within Microsoft's walled garden when viewing documents on their favorite tablet. At the moment, Office users must opt for other methods to open their files on the iPad — with one of the most popular being Google Docs.

Why would users trade free (Google Docs) for functionality (Office)? Microsoft reportedly plans to give users the following reasons to switch:

First, the iPad version of Office is said to borrow elements from Microsoft's touch-friendly Metro interface, currently on Windows Phone but due to spread throughout the platform on Windows 8. The overall look is said to be similar to the current OneNote iPad app released last year. That app is due for a makeover as well.

SEE ALSO: Microsoft Begins Private Preview of Office 15

Users will be able to work on documents locally or edit them online, presumably via Office 365, Microsoft's direct competitor with the cloud functionality of Google Docs.

Releasing a version of Office for iPad would be the culmination of Microsoft's advance into iOS territory. Over the last year and a half, Microsoft has slowly pushed out app after app for iOS devices, a tacit acknowledgement that one of its chief rivals, Apple, was so dominant in mobile that it couldn't afford to ignore it any longer.

Far from being a surrender, though, the push for Microsoft apps on the iOS platform is intended to seed adoption before Microsoft pushes even deeper into mobile with Windows 8 later this year. When Windows 8 arrives, Microsoft is also expected to release Windows Phone 8, the biggest update yet for the mobile OS. And there will almost certainly be a plethora of Windows tablets from various manufacturers.

Although the initial report says Microsoft could release Office for iPad within weeks, a new desktop version of Windows — Office 15 — is coming later this year, and the version of Windows for ARM devices (also due in the fall) is said to integrate Office functionality. Will the iPad version come months before both of those projects? It's possible, and there could be a reason behind the timing.

That reason? You. Do you, as an iPad owner, find yourself using Office alternatives on your tablet more and more? Perhaps Microsoft feels that it needs to stem the tide of Office defectors now, rather than waiting for the Windows platform stars to align.

What do you think of the news about Office for iPad? Sound off in the comments.

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The best place to put your router, according to physics

Image: Flickr, Björn Olsson

Electromagnetic radiation — it might sound like something that you'd be better off avoiding, but electromagnetic waves of various kinds underpin our senses and how we interact with the world — from the light emissions through which your eyes perceive these words, to the microwaves that carry the Wi-Fi signal to your laptop or phone on which you're reading it.

More or less every form of modern communication is carried by electromagnetic waves. They whisk through the antenna on your car, travel through walls whenever you need to make a phone call inside, yet also inexplicably reflect from seemingly nothing in the Earth's upper atmosphere.

This happens because the atmosphere becomes a plasma at high altitudes — a state of matter where atoms split apart and electrons are no longer bound to their parent nuclei. Plasmas have interesting properties, as they react very strongly to electromagnetic fields. In this case usefully: at low enough frequencies it becomes possible to bounce radio signals around the world, extending their range.

It's the interesting interactions between high-powered electromagnetic waves and plasmas that my research group and I study. The most intense electromagnetic waves in the world are found in the form of high-power laser pulses. The UK hosts some of the most powerful laser systems in rural Oxfordshire, and the same idea of using electromagnetic waves to accelerate particles is used at the Large Hadron Collider in CERN.

It's all in the maths

We can accurately predict the interactions of intense electromagnetic waves and plasmas, as the underlying physical processes are governed by Maxwell's equations — one of the triumphs of 19th century physics that united electric and magnetic fields and demonstrated that light is a form of electromagnetic wave.

Solving Maxwell's equations by hand can be tortuous, but it transpires that a clever algorithm invented in the 1960s and rediscovered since makes the exercise relatively simple given a sufficiently powerful computer.

Armed with the knowledge of Maxwell's equations and how to solve them, I recently turned my attention to a much simpler but more widespread problem, that of how to simulate and therefore improve the Wi-Fi reception in my flat. While "sufficiently powerful" in an academic sense often means supercomputers with tens of thousands of processors running in parallel, in this case, the sufficiently powerful computer required to run the program turned out to be a smartphone.

For this trick you will need one Maxwell

The electromagnetic radiation emanating from the antenna in your wireless router is caused by a small current oscillating at 2.4GHz (2.4 billion times per second). In my model I introduced a current like this and allowed it to oscillate, and Maxwell's equations dictated how the resulting electromagnetic waves flow. By mapping in the actual locations of the walls in my flat, I was able to produce a map of the Wi-Fi signal strength which varied as I moved the virtual router.

The first lesson is clear, if obvious: Wi-Fi signals travels much more easily through free space than walls, so the ideal router position has line-of-sight to where you'll be using it.

Sometimes it appears that the waves have stopped changing, and instead flicker in the same places. This is the phenomenon of a standing wave, where Wi-Fi reflections overlap and cancel each other out. These dark spots on the map (or "not spots") indicate a low Wi-Fi signal, and are separated by several centimetres. Recently, a fellow enthusiast managed to map this phenomenon in three dimensions, as explained in this video.

So the second lesson is less obvious and more interesting: if reception is poor in a particular position, even a slight change of the router's position may produce significant improvement in signal strength, as any signal dark spots will also move.

101 uses for electromagnetic waves

After publishing my findings I was struck by the number of people eager to perform simulations of their own. Ever eager to spread the gospel of electromagnetism, I bundled the simulation into an Android app to provide others with a simulated electromagnetic wave-based solution to a common modern problem: where's the best place for my Wi-Fi router?

Assuming few would be interested, I was surprised when news spread via social media and the several thousand copies of the app sold over the course of a few hours.

Sales have gradually dwindled but the message remains clear: not only are electromagnetic waves fascinating, mathematically elegant and supremely useful, they can make your life easier, your internet connection stronger, and even make you a bit of money too.

This article originally published at The Conversation here

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Home / The Docket / Play about Milk assassin’s trial well ‘executed’

Play about Milk assassin’s trial well ‘executed’

The concept of the “Twinkie defense” is now widely derided. But in 1979 the “diminished capacity” argument convinced a California jury that Dan White, a former city supervisor, only deserved a voluntary manslaughter conviction after he shot and killed San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and fellow supervisor and gay rights icon Harvey Milk.

That trial is the subject of Emily Mann’s “Execution of Justice,” which is being presented by Boston University’s School of Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts this weekend.

Heavily sourced from trial transcripts, Mann puts the audience in the jury box as she explores in detail whether White’s deteriorating mental state – displayed by the former health nut’s switch to a junk food and soda diet – meant that his act was something other than premeditated murder.

Kate Hamilton is especially effective in her portrayal of Douglas Schmidt, White’s defense attorney. Rather than asking the jury for sympathy, Schmidt prevailed by parading a team of psychiatrists in front of the court and by raising doubts about White’s motivation for the shooting.

Another strong cast member is Edmund Donovan, who portrays District Attorney Joseph Freitas, Jr. Already grieving for his murdered friends, Freitas then finds his political career ruined by the public outcry over the verdict. (A year later the California Penal Code was amended to exclude the “diminished capacity” defense.)

“Execution of Justice” seeks to capture both the mechanics of the weeks-long trial and the community’s response to it. That’s an ambitious goal that results in an overly long 150 minute play. But audiences who sit through it are rewarded with the chance to see a controversial part of legal history through multiple lenses.

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Thursday, November 17, 2011

Tobacco policy may infringe on civil liberties

By Courtney Donlin, News Editor

The policy change regarding tobacco use on Pacific Lutheran’s campus presented commotion. Around 20 students, staff, faculty and community members attending the second smoking forum Monday. Some participants said civil liberties were at stake for smokers.

Through spring semester 2011 and summer 2011, work surrounding the ban received little to no reaction, Provost Steve Starkovich said.

“Many [faculty members] said they were too busy, some said they were too busy and they don’t support the policy,” Starkovich said at the forum. “The lack of reaction, for me, was an indication that this was not a controversial topic.”

Starkovich said Monday’s forum was meant to “back up” from the notion that the policy is “a done deal” and open up a discussion about what the policy will mean. At its current stage, nothing has been officially decided.

Professor of English Jim Albrecht, who does not smoke, said at the forum he was against the policy change and called it an issue of civil liberties. Smokers, Albrecht said, will continue to smoke regardless of location. If they aren’t smoking on PLU property, then they are smoking on someone else’s property, he said.

Junior Julie Dupuis and her boyfriend Paul Hanson echoed Albrecht’s concern, describing the tobacco ban as a way to exclude students who smoke. Dupuis, who transferred to PLU from Bellevue Community College, said she felt as though she is welcome on campus as a student but not as a smoker.

Dupuis also said that smokers, in general, don’t intend to cause health risks for community members.

“We are very understanding that other people don’t want to inhale our smoke,” Dupuis said.

Although not a PLU student, Hanson agreed with Dupuis and emphasized the significance of making an adult decision when it comes to smoking.

“It comes down to having enough respect for your fellow human being to make that choice,” Hanson said.

Nursing student senior Marlee Call said in an email, “It has been stated that the tobacco ban infringes on students rights. The reality is, smoking is not a right. Smoking is a choice.”

Task Force member senior Jordan Tremper was part of the original group of nursing students who put forth the potential tobacco-free policy in spring 2011. The policy began as a student project that gave a list of recommendations for implementation, Tremper said.

“We still want this campus to be very inclusive,” Tremper said. “It’s not that we don’t want you, we don’t want this behavior.”

A possible solution proposed by Dupruis was the implementation of “smoke huts,” small covered areas where smokers can congregate without interfering with the nonsmoking community.

According to the Tobacco-Free page on PLU’s website, “Becoming a tobacco-free campus is in keeping with PLU’s commitment to promote and support a healthy and safe campus environment for all - it is a core value and a central part of our mission.” The Tobacco-Free FAQ section says PLU will not provide smoking stations.


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SARS at Williams – let’s hope not.

by Prof. Lauren Childs Imagine a SARS outbreak in quaint Williamstown – that’s exactly what Varun Bhadkamkar ’17, Anthony Brooks ’16, Jack Ferguson ’17, Connor Mulhall ’17, and Annie Sher ’17 did in their Math 307 final project. The SARS group built a network model of the Williams College undergraduate population, grouping individuals by dorms

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Frank Morgan Celebration at Doddceum

The last Doddceum of the Academic Year, held on May 5, 2016 was dedicated to Professor Frank Morgan, Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, in recognition of his indispensable service to Dodd Neighborhood. Frank Morgan worked to create more opportunities to bring faculty, staff, and students together; in doing so, he was instrumental

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Prizes at Majors’ Banquet

At a record crowd of 150 majors and faculty at the Faculty House, Prof. Morgan and others announced the following awards:   Kozelka Prize in statistics: Bryan Jones and Kelly Kung   (awarded by Prof. De Veaux, Associate Chair for Statistics) Morgan Prize in applied mathematics: Alex Meyer   (awarded by Prof. Blackwood) Wyskiel Prize

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I am Math/Stat

As officers of the AWM, we started the “I am Math/Stat” project as a visual representation of the diversity of experience of students in Math/Stat. We’ve put up posters in Bronfman, both at the top of the stairs and in the Math/Stat Bronfman Library. We hope to expand the project and add more quotes, so

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Fleming Essay on Harris Wins Award

Sarah Fleming ’17 has won Honorable Mention in the Association for Women in Mathematics Essay Contest, writing about our new Assistant Professor Pamela Harris: An Unconventional Path by Sarah Fleming ’17 For most of her life, Pam Harris had no plans to become a mathematician. Brought to the United States from Mexico at the age of eight, she

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The Banach-Mazur Game by John Damstra

This spring, I presented my senior colloquium on a topological game called the Banach-Mazur Game. This game was formulated by Stanislaw Mazur in 1935. It is the earliest example of an infinite game with perfect information. The game proceeds as follows. Continue reading. . John Damstra is a senior mathematics major at Williams College.

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Putnam 2015 Results

Williams had another strong showing in the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition. We had over 1.5% of campus take the exam, and our team placed in the top 50 in the nation with over 550 institutions participating. Over 4000 students took the exam nationwide and we had two students ranked in the top 500, Blake Mackall

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Interview with Eyvindur Ari Palsson

Meet & Potatoes with Eyvindur Ari Palsson

Our very own Professor Palsson was featured on the show Meet & Potatoes on WilliNet, the community television for Williamstown. During the show a number of topics were covered including several mathematical in nature. Professor Palsson gave a shout out to the weekly Math Puzzle Dinners – come try them on Wednesday evenings at 5:30 PM

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Sphere Packing in Dimensions 8 and 24

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Hello from Montenegro

Screen Shot 2016-02-22 at 7.21.22 AM

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Mathematical habits of mind

By | January 27, 2010

Learning mathematics is not just about knowing, understanding, and applying its concepts, principles and all the associated mathematical procedures and algorithms. It’s not just even about  acquiring the capacity to solve problem,  to reason, and to communicate. It is about making these capacities part of students’ thinking habits. It is only then that one can be said to be mathematically literate.

The test for example that solving problem is no longer just a skill but has become part of students thinking habit is when students are doing it without the teachers still having to ask “Can you explain why you solve it that way?” or “Can you do it another way?” Those should be automatic to students.

“A habit is any activity that is so well established that it occurs without thought on the part of the individual.”

Here’s is a list of important mathematical habits of mind that I believe every teacher should aim for in any mathematics lesson.

Habit #1: Searching for Patterns

Students should develop the habit of

  • generating cases and generalizing patterns
  • looking-out for short-cuts that arise from patterns in calculations
  • investigating special cases, extreme cases from patterns observed

Habit #2: Reasoning

Students should develop the habit of

  • explaining the positions they take
  • providing mathematical evidence/justification for the conjectures or generalizations they make
  • testing conjectures by generating cases both special and extreme
  • justifying why a generalization will work for all cases or for some cases only

Habit #3: Solving and posing problems

Students should develop the habit of

  • always looking for alternative solutions to problems
  • extending problems and solutions to more general case
  • solving problems algebraically, geometrically, numerically
  • asking clarifying and extending questions

Habit # 4: Making connections

Students should develop the habit of

  • Linking algebra, number, geometry, statistics and probability
  • Finding/devising equivalent representations of the same concept
  • Linking math concepts to real-world situation

Habit #5: Communicating mathematically

Students should develop the habit of

  • using appropriate notation and representation
  • noticing faulty, incomplete or misleading use of numbers

Habit #6: Reflecting and self-directing learning

Habit is a cable

All these are only possible  in an environment where students are engage in problem solving and mathematical investigation tasks.

If you want to know more about mathematical thinking, the books below are great read.

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  14. Avery

    This is great. I especially like how you differentiate between these processes as skills vs habits. You then put together a nice concise list of habits. If you’re interested in a longer list, take a look at a draft of my own habits of mind list.

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Math Forum » Discussions » sci.math.* » sci.math

Topic: Matheology § 210
Replies: 24   Last Post: Feb 12, 2013 1:12 PM

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Posts: 8,833
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Re: Matheology � 210
Posted: Feb 11, 2013 4:58 PM
  Click to see the message monospaced in plain text Plain Text   Click to reply to this topic Reply

In article
WM <mueckenh@rz.fh-augsburg.de> wrote:

> On 10 Feb., 22:42, fom <fomJ...@nyms.net> wrote:

> > You are a terrorist in spirit.  And, your statement is
> > the logic of reminiscent to that a terrorist uses.-

> Not a set-terrorist, fortunately.

Wm tries to be one, but can't figure out quite how to do it, so instead
of fear gets ridicule.

And deserves it.

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Math Forum » Discussions » sci.math.* » sci.math.symbolic.independent

Topic: Q:Maple - liesymm error message?
Replies: 0

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Rodney Beard

Posts: 11
Registered: 12/8/04
Q:Maple - liesymm error message?
Posted: Dec 11, 1996 1:25 AM
  Click to see the message monospaced in plain text Plain Text   Click to reply to this topic Reply

Using the Maple v.3 liesymm package I am getting the error
message: Error, (in value) division by zero, with determine.
I ran both setup and mixpar prior to determine.

Does anyone have any Ideas what could be wrong?
Any hints in using liesymm would be appreciated.

Rodney Beard
University of Queensland

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Undoing Percentage Changes

Date: 07/10/2002 at 15:11:06
From: Elias Spielman
Subject: Math percent equations

If 10000 x 102% = 10200, then how do I figure the percentage to get back
to my base number (10000), e.g., 10200 * 1.96% - 10200 = 10000.08?

Date: 07/12/2002 at 17:54:39
From: Doctor Ian
Subject: Re: Math percent equations

Hi Elias,

It's probably easier to see how this works if you use variables
instead of numbers.

If your original amount is A, and the percent increase is p, then
the new amount is

  A' = A(1+p)

You want to decrease it by some percentage q, to get back to A.
That is, you want to find q such that

        A = A(1+p)(1-q)

        1 = (1+p)(1-q)

  1/(1+p) = 1 - q

        q = 1 - 1/(1+p)

          = (1 + p - 1)/(1+p)

          = p/(1+p)

Let's check this with a simple example.  If we increase something
by 100%, we should have to decrease it by 50% to get back to
where we started:

        q = 1.0 / 2.0

          = 0.5
If we increase something by 1/3, we should have to decrease it by

        q = (1/3) / (4/3)

          = 1/4

So this seems to work okay.  So if p is 2 percent, q would be

        q = 0.02 / 1.02

Does this help?

- Doctor Ian, The Math Forum
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