Weekly Reading List [8.23.12] - Back from vacation

1. Slugfest 2012: The Making of The Atlantic's September cover - As campaigns heat up, I find the marketing side of it all very fascinating. All the propaganda, from both sides, as well as what newspapers and magazines put out to create the drum beat of election season.

2. Mitt Romney to Todd Akin: Just Quit Already & The Complicated Politics of Abortion - More campaign coverage

3. China Spends to Boost Economy & China's Tianjin city plans $236 billion investment programme & China Confronts Mounting Piles of Unsold Goods - We often think of China as being more robust and economically sound, it's interesting to read that they are also using stimulus plans to grow their economy. Better to do it before your in the hole, I suppose, but interesting none-the-less.

4. Risks of Syrian Intervention Limit Options for U.S. & The Public-and private- reasons the U.S. isn't arming Syrian Rebels & Syria's Mutating Conflict - More of the same, unfortunately.

5. New Biorefinery Finds Treasure in Starbucks' Spent Coffee Grounds and Stale Bakery Goods - With 1.3 billion tons of food dumped in landfills around the world each year, scientists test new "biorefinery" idea.

The Healing That Comes

A Blessing

I know how long

you have been waiting

for your story to take

a different turn,

how far

you have gone in search

of what will mend you

and make you whole.

I bear no remedy,

no cure,

no miracle

for the easing

of your pain.

But I know

the medicine

that lives in a story

that has been

broken open.

I know

the healing that comes

in ceasing

to hide ourselves away

with fingers clutched

around the fragments

we think are

ours alone.

See how they fit together,

these shards

we have been carrying:

how piece to piece

they make a way

we could not

find alone.

(via The Painted Prayer Book)

Mars...

Today Curiosity landed on Mars. Wow. 

This is another great video - combining the video above and the actual observation room with all the engineers and scientists as the landing was happening.

Becoming like a child...

(borrowed from the St. John's weekly newsletter, thanks Fr. Chris for writing it!)

"The Gospel from this past Sunday was the familiar story of the feeding of the 5,000 (John 6:1-21). Jesus goes up on a mountain with his disciples and a large crowd gathers around. Jesus asks Philip where they will buy bread to feed the people. Philip responds that six months wages would not buy enough bread. Andrew says there is a boy in the crowd with five loaves and two fish, adding "but what are they among so many people?" Jesus essentially celebrates a eucharist and the result is left overs. As I said in my sermon, the essential element of the story is the contrast between scarcity and abundance. To Jesus' impulse to feed the people is met with the response, "There isn't enough." It's worth noting that none of the disciples object to feeding the crown, their concern is that their isn't enough money to buy enough food nor enough food to share. How often in our lives do we echo the words of the disciples, "There isn't enough." There isn't enough time or money. We approach things from a position of scarcity, worried that using dwindling resources will lead to failure, so why even try. But Jesus looks at the same resources and decides to be as generous as possible with them. Instead of saying "there isn't enough" Jesus says, "lets share what is at hand" and the result is abundance. Jesus is not motivated by fear but by generous and abundant love."

A key figure in the passage is the boy, whom we presume has come forward to offer his five loaves and two fish. He is the one character who models the generosity to which the passage calls us. The presence of the boy offering his foods calls to mind the line from Mathew 18:3, "unless you change and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." In being generous with our time, our money, our patience, our care for others we move from a place of scarcity into the abundance of God."