incomplete works of greg

So, since we mention the "work" we do, but you only actually ever see swanky pictures of our social lives and crutches to get us through a harrowing seminary experience, we thought we'd show you some of the fruits of our labors.  It is sort of difficult to post large papers or things that would require a lot of context but we have done our best to post what is most accessible and brief. :)

One of our classes was Biblical Interpretation/Intro to English/Greek/Hebrew grammar and our final project was to read a book called "Drama of Scripture", basically an overview of salvation history which unfolds in 6 "Acts" (plus an Intertestamental period).  Using this format, we were to develop a teaching program on these 6 acts taught through whatever medium we preferred so it was a creative opportunity for us.
Greg chose to use the German national anthem to set a hymn based on the six acts from the drama book.

“The Drama of Scripture”

words by Gregory Pfeifer, 2010

music by Franz Josef Haydn, “Austria” 1797

http://www.digitalhymnal.org/dhymn.cfm?hymnNumber=423 for Hymn Tune 

1-Creation

God created out of nothing

All things by His spo-ken Word:

Light and life in heav'n, earth, sky, and sea.

God called all He made ve-ry good!

Making ma-n in His own im-ag-e,

God spoke His first co-ve-nant,

“Be ye fruit-ful! Mul-ti-ply and fill!

Have do-min-ion o-ver all I have giv'n!”

2-Fall of Humankind

God gave only one com-mand-ment:

“Eat from this tree and ye shall die.”

They, forgetting God and choo-sing self

dis-o-beyed and foll-owed a lie.

Man's re-la-tion-ship with God was bro-ken

yet He still would pro-mis-eth:

“From the woman's seed shall come vic-tor-y

He sha-ll crush the head of sin a-nd death!”

3- Kingdom Established in Israel

Is-ra-el, God's cho-sen kingdom

blessed to bless the sons of man.

Out of bon-dage through the wild-er-ness

God led them to the Pro-mised Land.

Gave them kings and priests, judges, prophets, Law

through whom co-ve- nants un-furled.

“I will be your God. You, my people.

From you will come the King who will save the world”

4-Redemption Accomplished by Jesus

Jesus Christ ful- filled the Co-ve-nants

wri-ting Law and Bless-ing with-in.

Second Adam, Hope of Is-ra-el

Conq'ring King o'er death a-nd sin!

The In-car-nate Word lived and dies for us

rose a-gain to reign on High

“God so loved the world: He gave His own Son

Who-e'er be-lieves in Him shall have Ne-w Life”

5-The Church and Jesus' Mission on Earth

God the Fa-ther sends Sal-va-tion forth.

God the Son se- cures Re-demp-tion.

God the Spi-rit leads the Church in Truth

who Par-ti-ci- pates in His Work.

Ci-ty on a hill. Light to Nations fill.

Com-mis-sioned by Christ our King:

“Go into the world make di-sci-ples

by Fa-ther, Son, and Holy Ghost bap-tiz-ing!”

6-Return of the King

Wai-ting for the King to come a-gain

long-ing for new earth and new heav'n.

All things shall be once for all re-deemed

through the judg-ment of the Lamb.

Part of one Story from Fall to Glory

Jesus comes to write the End,

“Lo! I'm coming soon!” we say when you do,

“Ma-ra-na-tha come Lord Je-sus! Amen!”

This Hymn is designed to support a 6-part teaching program, each verse coinciding with the content of the teaching to introduce the Parish to the “Drama of Scripture” as a way of situating the narrative of the Bible in its own context as well as our own context in the unfolding Story. The hymn tune was chosen as a familiar one, often associated with “Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken” (1982 Hymnal, Hymn #522), which is a Hymn concerning the Church. The familiarity with the tune, also used as the music for the German National Anthem, “Deutschlandlied”, allows for ease of teaching the new text. Similarly the familiar tune turns the focus away from learning the music to paying attention to the lyrics. Though pedagogical in nature, this Hymn, as with all others, ought to inspire to worship. To help facilitate this worshipful experience, the lyrics attempt to draw the singer out of self and upward to the Lord by emphasizing God's work.  The hymn tune has three sections per verse. The first section introduces God's activity, the middle section briefly relates the impact of the activity and each verse concludes with God speaking words of covenant exhortation, except for the last verse where the Church responds to the final words of Christ as we now await His return, reminding us that we are within the time frame of that verse and the chapter of the “Drama” we find ourselves.

We thought it was like "Fall Break"...

...boy, were we wrong!  So, when we read "Reading Week" in the middle of October on the Academic Calendar, we did mental high fives.

But, as we perused our syllabi and all our due dates, we gradually realized that it was nothing like a Fall Break and that we would be unable to go visit people or Niagara Falls or even just experience what the bourgeoisie refer to as a "staycation".  Alas, this was not our lot in life. 

First and foremost in our minds was our four Early Church essays and quiz to be turned in and taken by Thursday.  The class is excellent and the questions fair, and the essays only a page.  Easy shapeasy, right?  Have you ever tried to write all your thoughts about Ignatius of Antioch's historical context on a single 12-point font, 1 inch margin page?  I didn't think so.  Sadly, it was fairly easy to fit the place of women in the early church on one page...and that was even with the added business of having to support your claim with reference to the Didache.

We thought about posting all of our assignments for your perusal, but we will pick and choose because we don't want any pfeiferphiles to become pfeiferfoes.  Pictured above is Greg, chagrining as he attempts to put his finished essays in the dropbox online only to find that the internet has gone out...again.  More on that little problem later.
By the by, Greg highly recommends The Change of Conversion and the Origin of Christendom by Alan Kreider.  It it a fairly small book, with ridiculously small font, but which packs a lot of information on the nature of the church and the changes she underwent as Christianity became the religion of the empire.

Noel, pictured above, immensely enjoys Early Church, perhaps a little too much.  But, she was also pre-disposed to the idea that this would be her favorite class at Seminary.  In any case, doesn't she look so studious and intellectual in this picture?  If you'd like to see her answer to one of the "essays"-a creative flyer, click here.

And about this time, they recalled the word study due for BI600 (endearingly called this because nobody ever remembers the real name and thus far, it seems strange to have a grammar class in seminary)...and in addition to the Word Study, an Exam on the first half of the class.  This means, the entirety of a "little" book called "Greek for the Rest of Us" and all the English and Greek grammar your brain can hold, and some that it can't, for that matter.  Pictured to the left are Noel's lifeline, her flashcards and the Greek book sprawled on their dining table in receding light to accentuate the feeling of dread which accompanies them.  Please be lifting up the exam which happens Monday, the 25th, and for especially Noel's memory to be entirely alert.  Greg had 5 semesters of Greek and is already a grammar guru.

 We also have a book review, reflections and our regular reading assignments as well as 22 hours of work each week.  So, we're starting to feel the pressure big time. 
Are you wondering how on earth we survive all this chaos?

The REAL story of Roswell, New Mexico

On our way to ABQ, we stopped by Roswell's UFO Museum and Research Center, home of all things alien and UFO-related.  Spurred on by the events of a fateful July evening in 1947, this Museum documents the history of the town and the accounts of those involved either in the discovery of aliens and their aircraft downed in Roswell or the cover up which took place thereafter.  And it's great; you can take photos of anything except the Gift Shop :)  My one critique is that for a legitimate establishment with a very compelling story to tell, they sure had a lot of typos.  For all of you who know me, this is something I cannot abide...especially for museums and centers of fact transmission.  I mean seriously, as though America isn't already full of skeptics, why further that skepticism by clueless editing of walltalkers?  Well, before this turns into a post on typos, we'll move on....

You know you're in Roswell when...

I blew this up because I want to make sure you can see the "TOP SECRET" part...also, I never found anything explaining space light generating from aliens groinal regions so your guess is as good as mine.

Sorry the bottom's so blurry, it reads "Certain artistic license has been taken to show visually what has been reported."  Whoa, I'll say.  I thought Steve Miller was the only space cowboy but boy was I wrong.

This is a very partial list of propaganda on why it's likely that aliens exist and come to Earth.  Please note the Bible verses.  It's funny how few people really take the Text as legitimate and yet, when it comes to proving aliens exist, everyone's a believer.

The stuff that dreams are made of...or at least UFOs and/or weather balloons and/or government cover-ups.   This is a photo of a photo of one of the first military persons on the scene of the 1947 Roswell incident with the man to first discover the crashed UFO and its dead inhabitants.  He kept pieces of the craft which were like aluminum but immediately went back to their original shape once manipulated.  The original pieces conveniently disappeared from military personnel offices shortly thereafter.

This is an explanation of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".  Please note that one of the only people they consider "sophisticated" and a legitimate source is a pastor.  Awesome.  I hope I have such claims to fame to look forward to!

Noel pictured with RALF (Realistic Alien Life Form, for long) and the New Mexican flag, with a place like Roswell, how can one not be proud to be a New Mexican????

Greg befriending the poor caged RALF-good luck, little buddy.

One of the many alien wares shops in Roswell.  Actually, we were legitimately perplexed by how many businesses did not capitalize on the whole UFO/alien thing.  I mean, come on!  Nobody's going to go anywhere in this town if you don't claim to have something to do with inter-universe relations. 

This comic pretty much sums up the whole UFO museum for me.  Like, well, they can make up weather balloon stories and crash dummy stories (2 ways in which the government tried to deny the incident and say that it was really them running tests, etc) if they want, but we all know that one way or another, it was actually the aliens.

bondage of the wit

So, Greg just decided that tonight's more of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer over Planet Earth: Ice Worlds kind of night. I say, well, either sure beats what we did last night. We agonized last night (and for the better part of a fortnight) about the name for this blog. I know. You're saying, but wait, Greg is a part of this equation: king of puns, winner of wit wars! But, amigos, at times like this, it is a curse...what good is a head full of wit with the inability to put the proverbial rubber to the road and hone it into a workable blog title??? I know that reading this, you're also thinking, so then they came up with PfeiferPfiles?!?! Well, let us assist you in the genius behind this title (with the aid of one of our favorite sites...dictionary.com):

pfile
–noun
1. a pfolder, cabinet, or other container in which Greg and Noel's cyber papers, letters, etc., are arranged in convenient order for storage or repference.
2. a collection of Greg and Noel's papers, records, memories, whims, wisdom, parties, photos, mental vomit, etc., arranged in a semi-convenient order

–verb (used with transient)

1. to place in a pfile.

2. to arrange (papers, deets, non-sensical musings) in convenient order for storage, repference, education, entertainment, to please donors (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) and appease family.

-philes
a combining pform meaning “lovers of,” “enthusiasts pfor” that is specified by the initial element: Anglophile; bibliophile; demophile, Pfeiferphile.

pensieve
"I sometimes find, and I am sure you know the feeling, that I simply have too many thoughts and memories crammed into my mind... At these times... I use the Pensieve. One simply siphons the excess thoughts from one's mind, pours them into the basin, and examines them at one's leisure." ~Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

So, you see, enthusiasts, this is actually a title quite up to par with our usual verbal superiority (complex). Thank you for being PfeiferPfiles, we would not have made it this far without you. Definition of "this far" coming in the next cyber edition of the PfeiferPfiles.