As part of the National Education Association’s Read Across America program, the pre-school two of my kids go to twice a week for a few hours is having parents read their favorite book to their child’s class.
So this morning I’m off to Mrs.Barbara’s classroom with ”It’s Hard To Be Five” by Jamie Lee Curtis and ”The Peace Book” by Todd Parr in my backpack. These are Gabriella’s favorites though (she’s five). And they’re pretty good. But my favorite books when I first started enjoying to read, somewhere around third grade I think, were poetry books by Shel Silverstein like ”A Light In The Attic” and ”Where The Sidewalk Ends” and his opus tale of sacrificial love ”The Giving Tree.”
I still have parts of his prose memorized. And I can’t help but wonder if what I read way back then had something to do with making me who I am today. And this makes me wonder if reading ”Everybody Poops” and ”The Gas We Pass:The Story Of Farts” to my son every night is really such a good idea.
What words made you?
Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle blogs:
My latest book, Confessions of a Reformission Rev., is scheduled for release in early May, 2006. It chronicles the painful seasons of Mars Hill Church, which I founded in 1996 in Seattle. If you are a blogger and are willing to write a review of the book, Zondervan will send a free copy to the first seventy-five bloggers who ask. Your review does not need to be favorable and this may be a good way for some of you to take a good whack at me free of charge. So, if you want a free pre-release copy and are a blogger willing to write a review, please email my research assistant Crystal (crystal@marshillchurch.org) and she will add you to the list.
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I’m making a list of books I want to read, not in any particular amount of time, but just read...sometime, anytime. Most of these deal with the Jewish Middle Eastern roots of Christianity - since Christianity is a Middle Eastern Jewish faith. Teaching through Genesis right now has been very difficult since, growing up Baptist, I’ve been taught next to nothing about the Jewish faith or the Old Testament. I think I’m missing a lot because of that. So here’s what I’m planning on reading one day. What’s on your list? What would you recommend?
Walking The Bible : A Journey By Land Through
The Five Books Of Moses ( Bruce Feiler )
Jewish Spirituality, A Brief Introduction For
Christians ( Lawrence Kushner )
Excavating Jesus : Beneath The Stones, Behind
The Texts ( Crossan And Reed )
Understanding The Difficult Words Of Jesus : New
Insights From A Hebraic Perspective
( Bivin And Blizzard )
Jewish Sources In Early Christianity
( David Fleusser )
The Bible As It Was ( James L. Kugel )
The Source ( James Michner )
Slaves, Women And Homosexuals : Exploring
The Hermeneutics Of Culture Analysis
( William J. Webb )
Our Father Abraham : Jewish Roots Of The
Christian Faith ( Marvin Williams )
Following Jesus : Biblical Reflections On
Discipleship ( N.T. Wright )
For All God’s Worth : True Worship And The Calling
Of The Church ( N.T. Wright )
The Jews In The Time Of Jesus : An Introduction
( Stephen Wylen )
Jesus The Jewish Theologian ( Brad Young )
KURT VONNEGUT (Author: “Slaughterhouse Five") IS BEATING HIS PULPIT OVER AT INTHESETIMES.COM. CURRENTLY 81 YEARS-OLD, HIS ENTIRE RANT IS WORTH READING, WORTH DISAGREEING AND AGREEING WITH (IN THAT ORDER PROBABLY), AND WORTH A GOOD LAUGH A TIME OR TWO AS WELL. KNOWN FOR HIS NON-LINEAR A.D.D. STYLE OF WRITING, MR.VONNEGUT DOES NOT DISAPPOINT FANS OF HIS SCATTERED RAMBLINGS WITH THIS PIECE. ENJOY AN EXCERPT BELOW ON THE BEATITUDES:
Doesn’t anything socialistic make you want to throw up? Like great public schools or health insurance for all?
How about Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes?
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. …
And so on.
Not exactly planks in a Republican platform. Not exactly Donald Rumsfeld or Dick Cheney stuff.
For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course that’s Moses, not Jesus. I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere.
“Blessed are the merciful” in a courtroom? “Blessed are the peacemakers” in the Pentagon? Give me a break!
