A force for good
Even though I love movies, I rarely go to the theater. But I usually make it to the multiplex for the big blockbusters that are released at Christmas (Lord of the Rings 1-3, The Chronic(what?)cles of Narnia) and at the Fourth of July (Minority Report, Terminator 3, War of the Worlds). This year I think Superman Returns will get me there.
It isn’t just the big-budget effects that attract me, but the idea of Superman himself. When I was five, I put my underwear on outside my pajamas and pretended to be Superman. I haven’t done that in awhile (honestly) but I do have in my heart a lasting esteem for the super-hero.
At some point in our lives, didn’t we all see that same appeal in Jesus?
In his book The Myth of Certainty (more about it here), Daniel Taylor has a fictional professor at a Christian college describe her attraction to Jesus:
“When I was a young girl, I had a love for Jesus that I’ve never quite matched since. He was so clearly everything I wanted to be - not just good, but a force for good. I didn’t want to just be good, I wanted to do righteousness - like Jesus did when he healed the sick and cast out demons. I looked at my own little world and at the bigger one beyond and said, ‘Sarah, there’s casting out to be done here and you and Jesus are going to do it.’”
You’ve seen that in Jesus at some point in your life, haven’t you? And yet it’s easy to lose sight of it, easy to make Christianity more about being good than doing righteousness.
Don’t get me wrong: What we do has to flow from who we are. The Pharisees illustrate what happens when action replaces inner righteousness. But Jesus attracted people by acting as a force for righteousness. He still does.
Superman is one of those good stories that remind our hearts of the One True Story. And remember, Jesus came not just to do righteousness himself, but to create followers to be a force for righteousness: He said in John 14:12 - “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”
For some good reading on Superman Returns, check out Christianity Today’s interview with director Brian Singer, and this wonderful article at Relevant Magazine.
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A not-so-historical Jesus
There can be no doubt that our traditional ideas about Jesus sometimes get in the way of knowing Him as he really is. For a serious treatment of this theme, read Phillip Yancey’s The Jesus I Never Knew. For a not-so-serious treatment, check out this funny short video (2:22) which was developed by a church called Vintage21 in Raleigh, NC. This video is one of four.
Hat tip: I saw it for the first time last night as part of the presentation by the Group Work Camp team currently staying at our church (thanks, Jessica and Mallory).
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The Homeless Guy
I ran across an interesting blog today written by a homeless guy, called (interestingly) The Homeless Guy. He has been blogging for more than four years, but he recently attracted enough attention to make it to the front page on Digg (apparently driven by this Wired story). His blog will frustrate you if you look for him to explain his homelessness in a quick easy way, or offer a solution to homelessness, but he will give you some insight into the world of the homeless.
He has a PayPal link on his site to accept donations, and he says that he tried Google Ads and they didn’t work (”Click here to learn how you can be homeless!”)?
Is he for real? Salon did a story about him in October, 2002. And he isn’t alone. A search on “homeless blogger” reveals several other such people including a woman profiled by NPR in January, 2004.
So why is a guy who has attracted national attention at least twice, and who is obviously intelligent and literate, perpetually homeless? Let’s just say there are reasons why it is difficult to pull people out of homelessness.
Read a few posts on his blog, and you’ll see homelessness, charity efforts, inner-city renewal and many other things from a new perspective.
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Who shares your birthday?
For some reason, I feel a kinship with people who share my birthday. In our church, I have the same birth date as two people - a new friend named Brandy and an old friend named Teresa (I won’t say how old).
Famous people have the same birthday as I do. Nicole Kidman does (she’s three years younger). So does John Goodman (11 years older) and Josh Lucas (7 years younger) who has been acting for 15 years but only recently became moderately famous in Glory Road and Poseidon. 80s pop-star Lionel Ritchie shares my birthday, as does Darko Milicic, who was drafted between LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony in the NBA draft a few years ago (he has yet to pan out). Other notable birthday buddies include guitarist Chet Atkins, Errol Flynn,and Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson, who once said: “Beware the lollipop of mediocrity; lick it once and you’ll suck forever.”
Why does this matter to me? I think it’s because we all need to connect with others somehow, so we look for affinity where we can find it. When we’re far from home, we get excited to to meet someone from our state. We want to be identified as Southerners or jazz fans or members of Earnhardt nation.
For me, it’s birthdays. The day I was born - I had no control over it whatsoever, yet it defines me for the rest of my life, telling me when I can drive, when I can vote, when I’m over-the-hill (not yet) and when I’m supposed to retire. So it pleases me to stumble across someone who shares the same defining random day.
The birthday thing is a shallow connection, though - an ice-breaker, a conversation-starter, not much more. How much more wonderful it is to find connection with people who share our deepest and most-eternal quality - our faith in and love for Jesus Christ.
Happy birthday Teresa and Brandy…and you too, Darko (hang in there).
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The Myth of Certainty
I recently finished reading Daniel Taylor’s book The Myth of Certainty: The Reflective Christian and the Risk of Commitment (InterVarsity Press, 1986). The title makes it sound like the book encourages skepticism and undercuts faith. Far from it. Taylor instead helps us embrace faith more firmly even in the face of doubts. The “myth” in the title refers to 1) the fact that we’ll never be 100% certain of anything important - not love, or what will make life meaningful, or faith - but we don’t have to be to take the “risk of commitment”; and 2) the fact that those who criticize faith and lean instead on reason (so they say) don’t have any more certainty about their world view than we do. Probably less.
A silly example: When I went home today, our two cats were convinced that they had cornered something (a mouse? a lizard?) behind our refrigerator. I looked with a flashlight but couldn’t see anything, though their noses are sharper than my eyes. If they do catch that mouse, they’ll probably play with it, torture it and kill it before leaving it somewhere I’d rather they didn’t (our bed?) On the one hand, the whole thing is a marvel of animal design. On the other, it’s a reminder that the whole animal kingdom is tainted by lots of senseless cruelty, pain and death.
In creeps a moment of doubt. Is this really the kind of world a loving God would allow? I know, I know, it’s a fallen world, it isn’t as God created it, etc. Still, this type of thing speaks with a loud voice.
The fact is, I do believe in God, and it’s a faith based on good reasons, not the least of which is the ability of cats and mice to do incredibly complex things. But I’m not free from all doubt.
Taylor’s book reminds me that I don’t have to be. Faith, because it is “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1) isn’t free of doubt. But I choose to risk making the commitment.
The Myth of Certainty is written in a teaching style, but interspersed are sections of fiction which tell the story of a Christian College professor as he struggles with doubt while trying to live in both the religious and secular worlds. Usually I dislike such didactic fiction in a serious book, but Taylor is such a good storyteller that these interludes are the best part of the book.
If you’re interested in reading The Myth of Certainty, you might check Amazon for a cheap used copy (that’s where I got mine). Or, I’ll loan you mine after I go over it for another week or two.
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Christian Standard
Our church gives away three weekly publications from Standard Publishing - Seek, The Lookout, and Christian Standard. The latter two maintain a fair amount of content online, and Christian Standard sends out an email newsletter that partially duplicates the print edition and contains additional, immediate content. I recommend it.Since we moved to the new building, the display for these publications has been a little hard to find. Linda Mowrer improved it greatly this week. Look for these and other handouts in a new display in the Atrium, just to the right as you pass through the main entrance.
Fostering life
My friend DeWayne Britt supplied me with another good thought for this blog (I really need to add his name to the blog!) This is about something Christians can do as a pro-life ministry, our “hot topic” from last Sunday. DeWayne says:
The one thing that Christians can and should consider short of Adoption is being a Foster Parent. This is something that can be done now and with no real effort on the front end. The Department of Children’s Services is always in need of good Foster Parents but even much more, Christian Foster Parents. What an opportunity awaits both the Christian and the foster child. We have never received a child in our home that had been “churched”. All have come from very dysfunctional families where incest, drugs, physical-sexual abuse, neglect were common place. As a Christian we have been able to, if nothing else, introduce them to Jesus Christ through our commitment to a Christian life, Church and through our example, be it not always perfect. They are able to see a family, who although not the “Beaver Cleaver” example, one that loves each other regardless of our flaws and failures, stick it out, try to make things better and most importantly knows who holds it all together; Jesus Christ. Some children are only in the foster home for a short period of time but others longer. Imagine that child being introduced to Jesus then returning to the dysfunctional home. What a support for the child in a bad situation, but what if the child is able, through Jesus Christ change that family? Although Fostering can be difficult at times, the benefit for all exceeds any other accomplishment that I can think of. Attached is the DCS Adoption/Fostering web site for more information about DCS opportunities; http://tennessee.gov/youth/adoption/
Loving my gay neighbor
MHCCer DeWayne Britt sent me this excellent article from a Christianity Today publication (Outreach International Today) about a minister’s struggle to relate to his openly-gay neighbors and reach out to them with the love of Christ. Our Wednesday Bible study had a lively discussion about this article and issue. Maybe it will stimulate your thinking and outreach too.
X-Men: On the other hand…
I mentioned in my sermon on Sunday that I heard a secular film critic mention that homosexuality was a subtext behind the latest X-Men movie (about mutants and those who want to “cure” them). Even if that subtext is present, there is certainly more to the movie than that. Here’s a story (thanks to Linda M.) about X-Men producer Ralph Winter, a Christian who sees his work as a bridge-building exercise between culture and faith, and he offers another interpretation, as well as other interesting observations about movies.
Our political future?
Unity08 is a fascinating attempt to reshape the next presidential election by nominating a president and vice-president in an online convention. According to Unity08, this ticket will be “headed by a woman and/or man from each major party or by an independent who presents a Unity Team from both parties.”
Here is a section of their belief statement:
In our opinion, Crucial Issues include: Global terrorism, our national debt, our dependence on foreign oil, the emergence of India and China as strategic competitors and/or allies, nuclear proliferation, global climate change, the corruption of Washington’s lobbying system, the education of our young, the health care of all, and the disappearance of the American Dream for so many of our people.
By contrast, we consider gun control, abortion and gay marriage important issues, worthy of debate and discussion in a free society, but not issues that should dominate or even crowd our national agenda.
Note that I’m not endorsing this party - I’m just beginning to learn about them. But I think it is possible that something like this could work.
