Reentry.

By the time you read this I will be back in my home in Chicago, my office at LSTC, and the classroom that is finally my home away from home. For the last six months I have been hanging out in Marburg, the oldest Protestant University, where a statue of Rudolph Bultmann graces the old university courtyard and a street named after him is only a few blocks away. (Just to show that things change here, too, the students have constructed out of papier mache a "Bultfrau" in their coffee shop.) During my time away a lot of important people have died--John Tietjen, Robert Fischer, Marlon Brando, Ronald Reagan, Ray Charles, several classmates, and my own brother. The situation in Iraq has continued on its bloody way, and gasoline prices in the U.S. have soared--although benzin in Germany costs about two and a half times as much as you are paying. I have accomplished much but suspect that all sorts of surprises and challenges--and forgotten deadlines--await my return. I am eager to go home.

In a study of one of the servant poems in Second Isaiah, Frederick C. Holmgren reflects not only about those who suffer innocently but also about those who are the oppressors in this passage and in similar passages in the Psalter. In the New Testament Jesus is portrayed in ways that emulate the patient, faith-filled servant, but the New Testament also shows that he sometimes faced violence with inner torment. One biblical text does not fit all the circumstances of life or express all that may be said about one's response to opposition or violence. Paul's teaching and the words of Jesus are addressed to specific situations, and they retain their validity only in contexts that closely approximate these situations. The impressive witnesses to nonviolence of the servant, Jeremiah, and Jesus should not be seen as standard behavior for every situation in which one comes face to face with violence.

Jeffrey A. Truscott emphasizes that the consent/vow, nuptial blessing, and the liturgies of the word and meal are essential parts of the Christian marriage service. Human intention is expressed ritually in the consent and the vow. The exchange of rings is a visible expression of the vow. Statements of intention and vow give a vision of what married life should look like and make marriage part of one's Christian vocation. Divine blessing is necessary because human intention must be bolstered by God's help and because this blessing makes the service Christian. The article shows why the celebration of the Lord's Supper as part of the celebration of marriage is a worthy goal, for liturgical and pastoral reasons. A number of practical implications conclude the article.

Vitor Westhelle discusses various aspects of space and our theological vocation. Locales (e.g., stores, airports) are points of transition from one place to another; places (e.g., homes) release us from the transitory experiences of everyday life. Hybrid spaces (offices, assembly lines) are places of transition and dwelling but not exactly either of them. Thick hybrid spaces are of three types--monumental, archival, and epiphanic. Epiphanic spaces send the gaze beyond the space itself; they are places in which the future is unveiled and where divine presence is embodied in the very stuff of the world. Through divestment and nurture, holy spaces present the Gift. A holy space is a place of healing and safety and the product of a community that breathes life into it. In a holy place, engagement and letting go take place. A holy place gathers and nurtures but also releases and sends people into the midst of life.

Howard Worsley discusses atonement theory and relates such theory to popular children's literature--The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; The Lord of the Rings; The Druid of Shannara; and the Harry Potter stories. Four images pervade the atonement theories: the point of sacrifice, the demands of justice, the decisive victory, and the act of love. The article considers how in each of the books the Christ figure is identified and what the task of salvation and the means of atonement are. In the Narnia tales, for example, Aslan is Christlike in demonstrating his love by laying down his life for his friends. The effects of atonement are offered first to those who have died in Christ, and this is seen in Aslan's initial task of reclaiming his followers whom the witch had turned to stone. All four models of the atonement are modeled in this narrative.

About the time you get this you will have just reentered the fall season, getting ready to wind up the Pentecost cycle and to kick off the fall program. Each year, each morning, we discover God's mercies are new or at least renewed. Each year, each morning, we say boldly, defiantly, hopefully: I am baptized! Yes, indeed, we have been buried with Christ this morning, this year, through our baptism, so that, like Christ, we might rise to newness of life. Happy reentry to all of us!

Ralph W. Klein, Editor