¢â‚¬ËœALL THAT IS WITHIN ME ¢â‚¬â„¢  

Psalm 103:1,2   ¢â‚¬“ Bless the  Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.   Bless the  Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. (KJV).  

^{Bless the  Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the  Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits (NRSV).}       

O my soul, bless  God.
        From head to toe, I ¢â‚¬â„¢ll bless his holy name!
O my soul, bless  God,
        don ¢â‚¬â„¢t forget a single blessing! (The Message)

~~

Last night we celebrated a family-member ¢â‚¬â„¢s birthday at the best eating-place in our suburban village  ¢â‚¬“ the UTSAV Indian Restaurant, Canterbury Road, Heathmont, Victoria.

(Check with Google: their menu is online).

The most interesting way to eat there is to order a $32-50 per-person-with-your-partner banquet-meal from their best-of-everything list. ( ¢â‚¬ËœWith your partner ¢â‚¬â„¢ means you can swap preferred items with each other).   There ¢â‚¬â„¢s a bowl of naan  ¢â‚¬Ëœbreads from Tandoor ¢â‚¬â„¢. Entr ƒ ©e is a little bit of this ¢â‚¬â„¢nthat (samosa, vegetable pakora, tandoori mushroom, onion bhaji etc). Then the main course (chicken tikka, fish tikka, rogan rosh  ¢â‚¬Ëœauthentic lamb curry from Kashmir ¢â‚¬â„¢) etc. And finally dessert (choice of three different kinds of ice-cream, including my favorite – mango  ¢â‚¬“ yum!), plus a little gulab jamun (a tasty milk dumpling soaked in sweet syrup). You bring your wine-of-choice, unless you have one or more  ¢â‚¬Ëœsomewhat teetotalers ¢â‚¬â„¢ in your group, whose preferred liquid might be lemon-lime-and-bitters ¢â‚¬ ¦

~~

This is a paradigm, a model, for  ¢â‚¬Ëœdoing theology ¢â‚¬â„¢. The Lord has  ¢â‚¬Ëœyet more light and truth ¢â‚¬â„¢ to enrich our lives. So we won ¢â‚¬â„¢t simply imbibe just one tasty dish (listed on the seminary menu under Spong, or Stott, or CSLewis, or Girard, or Harvey Cox or whoever).

The best theological dining experience involves tasting each of these, asking:  ¢â‚¬ËœWhat insights does this scholar offer that I can include in my total  ¢â‚¬Å“feast-of-truth ¢â‚¬  ¢â‚¬â„¢???

More to come ¢â‚¬ ¦

Rowland Croucher

July 27, 2014