the unlikely orange

"barabbas" gregory a. milinovich mixed media collage (acrylic paint, gesso, found and vintage papers, markers, crayon, glue) on stretched canvas february 2013     this week for our evening lenten series at church we talked about the figure of barabbas, particularly examining the account of him in matthew.  there we see a very clear choice being presented between jesus barabbas and Jesus the Christ.  while to us who may have had a bit too heavy a dose of mel gibson, we may picture this choice as one between the wonderful Jesus the Christ, and the scandalous, rough, loser known as barabbas.    it's not that simple.   matthew wants us to see that the choice is not about a political guy vs. a spiritual guy.  it's not about external stuff vs. internal stuff.  it's not any of that.  matthew is showing us that it is a choice between a revolutionary who would change far too little, and one who would change everything.    perhaps the most obviou

just a little lent humor for your wednesday.  i got it from united methodist memes , which, if you are a methodist, is stinking hilarious (especially if you're a pastor).  in sadder news, today would have been max's twelfth birthday.  we sure do miss that guy. 

last night at dinner, as part of our usual type of dinner conversations, jackson was explaining to us in detail the instrument of beheading known as a guillotine.  only he didn't know what it was called.  what he did know, however, was a great amount of detail regarding the workings of the death machine, including the way the rope was secured, the way the blade functioned, and the overall design.  i was intrigued that he knew so much about this, and was wondering why they had gone into such detail about this in 2nd grade.  so i thought i would applaud his attention to detail and obvious listening skills before proceeding to ask what was the context for learning all of this.  the conversation went something like this...   me: "wow!  you really know a great deal about guillotines.  that's amazing.  what are you studying in school that you are learning so much about them?"  jack: we're not learning that in school. me (genuinely surprised): oh.  well then, wh

many of you may not care about downton abbey.  if that applies to you, move along, there's nothing to see here.  on the other hand, if you are completely and helplessly addicted, as i am, then you  may get as big a kick out of this video as i have.  it is the cast of downton abbey "speaking" the song "What Makes You Beautiful" by Britain's own One Direction.  it is very well done, and i can't stop watching it.  downton fans, you're welcome. 

"pontius pilate" mixed media collage (acrylic paint, found papers, ink, glue) on stretched canvas gregory a. milinovich february 2013     this year during lent we are doing an evening service called "in search or resurrection," looking at some various characters of the passion story, and allowing them to shed light on our understanding of Jesus, his love, and the power of the resurrection for our lives.  we started this week with pontius pilate, and one of the things we talked about is that while the lasting image we have of pilate is of an essentially innocent man put into a tough position, washing his hands of any guilt.  this couldn't be further from the truth.  actually, the Jerusalem leaders brought Jesus to pilate after their late-night trial because, truth be told, there wasn't much they could do about it.  they desperately needed pilate to carry out the sentence they so desperately wanted: death.  pilate can wash his hands all he

caedmon's picture of he and i. caedmon's painting.   caedmon's hobbit. jackson's bat.  not sure if that is sonar, or if he is daydreaming about a rather large mosquito. jackson's epic sea battle.  very terrifying. 

We've been back to our annual tricks again; our February pilgrimage into a land of knee-high paper scraps and little bits of glue finding their way into orifices we had forgotten we had. That's right: we are scrapbooking again. I get made fun of every year for this and again this year I was asked in an incredulous voice, "YOU are scrapbooking?" Well, yes, yes I am, thank you very much. Although I prefer to call it family historical documentation. And we've been busy at it, too. The man cave has been turned into a world of 12x12 papers and stickers for every possible occasion, not to mention glues and scissors and tapes and enough photographs to fill several families' scrapbooks. But it's just ours. And we are up to thanksgiving in 2012, which means we've only got a couple of months to go. We can see the finish line, and it looks like seeing my carpet again.

...this just in....we are receiving reports that a mr. greg milinovich, pastor from sunbury, pennsylvania, has signed up for his first race since spring field day in the fourth grade when we won a short dash of some sort, in between plastic glasses of watered-down kool-aid.  now, some 30 years later, he has committed to running a 5k.  seismologists are already preparing their equipment for what will surely be a series of mild readings on the Richter scale during his weighty run.  the city of tyrone, pennsylvania, where the race will take place, is making preparations by completing some proactive structural surveys, tying down loose objects, and even some evacuations by some of the folks living on or near the race route, who have been quoted as saying, "look, we've got kids.  we can't have them seeing the equivalent of a giant hairy whale on wobbly legs come careening down the street...it would give them nightmares for months."  hold onto your green hats, folks, t

"to my valentine, 2013" mixed media collage on hardcover bookboard (acrylic paint, found papers, glue, marker) gregory a. milinovich february, 2013 happy valentine's day. today i gave shannon, among other things, her sixth in a series of annual valentine's day collages. you can see this year's above. below is an image in which you can see at least parts of all of them. i hope you are all having a day of remembering that no matter who you are or what you have done, you are beloved.

"ash wednesday, 2013" gregory a. milinovich mixed media (acrylic paint, found and vintage papers, crayon marker, ash, glue) on stretched canvas february, 2013 today is ash wednesday, a day in which, as we begin the 40-ish day journey of lent towards the cross and resurrection, we start with a great deal of honesty about who we are and how we are not nearly as strong as we think we are.  part of the tradition of the church has been to use ashes to demonstrate the mortal nature of our skin and bones, and the way it all breaks down at some point, until its all redeemed again (transfigured?) in the end by the One who sets all things to rights.  for some reason, this annual ritual of the recognition of our profound brokenness has always been compelling to me, and since 2007 i have made a collage each year to mark the day.  above you see what i've made this year.  below you can see the others.  2012  2011 2010 2009 2008 2007   may y

-happy pancake tuesday, the final day before lent.  it seems a bit self-serving to indulge just for the sake of indulgence, even on the threshold of lent, but indulgence really isn't the point at all.  it was about ridding the home of things that you wouldn't be needing during the sacrificial season ahead.  so, if you're giving up chocolate, its time to finish off that bag of m&m's.  if you are giving up soda, might as well finish off those cans of pepsi.  if you're giving up swearing, well, you get the point.  -i haven't been feeling quite well the last few days, although i can't say that i've been properly sick, either.  i've just been generally exhausted, with a tickling sort of cough, and a tremendously heavy head, burning eyes, etc.  shannon said, "see, aren't you glad you got the flu shot?"  to which i replied, "no.  not at all.  if i had the flu, at least i would actually be sick, and could be lying on the couch watc

i'm a sucker for mashups.  i just live the mix of songs in interesting ways.  i came across this twist on the usual concept of a mashup as a digital combination of edited songs.  here we have some musicians mashing it up themselves, with their own voices and instruments.  pretty cool stuff.  includes 10 pop songs from 2012.  enjoy. 

this is a crossword puzzle i did this morning.  i try to wait until lunch to do the one in the paper each day, but i often can't wait, and i have to do it in the morning.  i just can't stop myself.  what is that about?  is it just because i love words so much?  i mean, truth be told, i've been known to do the crossword, the cryptoquip, the jumble, the wordwarp and the other words games in the newspaper leaving only one puzzle undone: the sudoku, which thankfully, i don't have to pronounce as i write it, because i have yet to hear a definitive pronunciation.  in any case, i'm no great lover of numbers, so is that all there is to it?  i just love words, so i do the crossword?  or is there something deeper going on? i recently visited a woman in a hospital.  she wasn't in a great state of mind, but she was working on a puzzle.  it was one of my favorite hospital visits ever!  the puzzle was a patchwork quilt, and i couldn't resist helping her search fo

the camera sometimes catches moments that my eye would miss, or forget in an instant.  but i am thankful for that glass eye, and those pixels and bytes that sear it on the screen of my heart, a moment in time, a precious image of infinitely more precious living, breathing being.  thinking, as he looks for some sign of recognition in that long black lens, experiencing the mystery and wonder of his 18-month old existence through his own eyes, sure, and also through the awe and joy of his crazy-about-him father. 

oh, pinterest, you little devil, you.  you are one big swarming beehive of ideas, complete with little photographs and inspirational sayings, and you lull us into thinking that if only we pin you with a couple of clicks to our virtual bulletin boards, we have accomplished something more than the .00125 of a calorie burn by the finger movement.  if we pin an idea, we are so conveniently lulled into thinking that either we've already accomplished it, or somehow moved so far towards accomplishing it, that we  merely need to do the final step.  nevermind that we haven't even gotten up out of our chair yet.  nevermind that we will likely forget the recipe or the storage idea by the time we get upstairs and have to deal with the mess the kids made all over the living room carpet.  as long as we can keep pinning; as long as we can keep reaching into the beehive and pulling out honey-sweet ideas, we can trick ourselves into feeling like we've really done something.  and so,

there was a football game played last night.  i wanted both teams to lose, but i wanted one to lose much more than the other one.  i watched the first half, and then i watched beyonce squirming and gyrating half-naked all over the country's televisions, and then shannon and i, instead of watching this, which would have caused me some sort of life-threatening illness, i'm sure: turned the game off and put it in the first disc of season one of this: that's right.  instead of watching grown men bludgeon one another, we watched british people talk about each other behind their backs.  it was...brilliant.  and i didn't have to watch a bunch of these guys dancing around in tight pants and visions of plea bargains still dancing in their heads: and now life goes on.  at least the 49ers still have less super bowl victories than the steelers. and the ravens?  well, they'll still be the ravens.  and i will still pray that God will help me find a way to

okay, so it isn't exactly a saturday song, but on the eve of the superbowl, i just can't help but share this video which is  a bit of a classic in our family.  i hope the 49ers find a way to follow in cade's footsteps.  also,  here's hoping we receive good news about jerome bettis today:

    finished.    this morning, just a few minutes after midnight, i finished a very compelling series of books by the man who has not only maintained his post atop by "favorite author of all time" list, but has staked a claim to that spot that will likely keep him there forever: frederick buechner .  the series is comprised of 4 books by the names of "lion country" (which i already wrote about here ), "open heart," "love feast" and "treasure hunt," and they are sometimes printed together in one volume entitled "the book of bebb" as you can see below.  as i mentioned, i already reviewed 'lion country' here on my blog, and in some ways, it was my favorite of the series, at least as a stand-alone book.  as the series goes on and the characters' deeper flaws and failures are revealed, i see more of my own ugliness in them, and maybe it feels a bit too much like a full-length mirror showing all the m