Meaningful Work
I spent two days this week at Dallas Theological Seminary's annual faculty retreat. And here's a sampling of cool stuff that happened:
Our president, Dr. Bailey, gave an informative (yea, even humorous) report of his time in Beijing with President and Laura Bush. You can read an interview Dr. Bailey did on the subject by going here. (The funny part was his story of how he turned on his camera during a church service in China and the red light showed up on the back of "43." In case you wondered, the Secret Service does notice when ya do something like that. LOL!)
Our campus facilities manager is a visionary when it comes to building green. You can read something he published on the subject here.
When asked how many of us had some sort of recent international experience, every person I saw had his or her hand raised. A high percentage, if not all of us, get out of the ivory tower and walk in the dirt. Conversations were filled with happenings and trends in Jordan, Brazil, India, China (where we now have 50-60 online students taking classes in Mandarin Chinese), Israel, Ethiopia...
I enjoyed a wonderful discussion at lunch on one of those days about "women." And when I returned home, I found that the head of our spiritual formation department, who had been part of that conversation, had sent me an excerpt from a message he sent to friends on another occasion:
The early church gets a pretty bad rap when it comes to how they viewed women (much of it deservedly), but these two quotes I came across today provide a bit of balance to that picture. These are from two very significant 4th century theologians. I found them in a book called Inheriting Wisdom: Readings for Today from Ancient Christian Writers, edited by Everett Ferguson. Enjoy.
"We have been born of man and woman; children owe one debt to both of their parents.... If you ask about the worst, the woman sinned - and so did Adam. The serpent deceived them both; it was not the case that one was weaker and the other stronger. But consider something better: Christ saves both by his passion. Was he made flesh for the man? He was made flesh also for the woman. Did he die for the man? The woman also is saved by his death. He is called the seed of David, and so perhaps you think the man is honored? But he is born of a virgin, and this is on behalf of women. Therefore he says that the two shall be one flesh [Gen 2:24], so the one flesh is to have equal honor." (Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 37.6-7)
"Since, as the apostle says, 'The woman, being deceived, was in transgression' [1 Tim 2:14] and her disobedience led the revolt against God, for this cause she became the first witness of the resurrection [John 20:1-18] that she might correct the outcome of her disobedience by her faith in the resurrection. And just as at the beginning she became a minister and adviser to her husband on behalf of the words of the serpent and brought into human life the beginning of evil and its consequences, so in ministering the words of Christ - who put to death the rebellious dragon - to his disciples she became humanity's guide to faith. It was fitting that the first sentence of death be annulled through her." (Gregory of Nyssa, Against Eunomius, 3.10.16)
Other conversations related to how our theology affects our view of creation care. And again, upon my return home, I received further thoughts, this time from Dr. Mike Svigel. They included this:
As the human body has been redeemed and will be resurrected, so the physical world has been redeemed and will be restored (Rom 8:18–25). Just as Christians must treat their present physical bodies with the care and honor due an image-bearing creation of God with a future redemption (even when that body is dead!), so also Christians must treat the present physical creation with the care and honor due a glory-reflecting creation of God with a future redemption (even when that creation is fallen and corrupt!).
In other news, I can't remember if I mentioned it here, but I've been invited to Jordan in November, and the trip fits perfectly with some book research I want to do.
AND...my husband has decided to go with East-West doing more of what we did in Kenya this summer, working with the team on the ground to help with literacy, Bible training, micro-businesses, AIDS orphans, widows, and the at-risk poor. Feel free to pray for us!