02.03.09
The Blog about Thinking Biblically
I just finished reading a very intriguing book called, “The Year of Living Biblically.” The author, A.J. Jacobs, tried to follow the Bible literally for one year. No haircuts, a full, bushy beard, dietary restrictions, observance of all the religious holidays. He even followed the command to “be fruitful and multiply.” During the year, he and his wife found out they were pregnant with twins. I’m not sure Jacobs was completely successful in his quest but it made for an entertaining read.
One of the things I enjoyed most about the book was Jacobs’ slow transformation during his biblical year. His initial approach to this endeavor was a bit tongue-in-cheek. Jacobs, a self-proclaimed agnostic, is never disrespectful or mocking, but he starts out with a healthy skepticism about this revered and authoritative book.
But over the course of the year, as he spends more time studying and following the scriptures, Jacobs gradually begins to see the benefit of living a religious existence. At one point Jacobs found himself saying little prayers of “thank you” throughout the course of the day. He admits he’s not sure to whom he was praying, but he remarked this shift in his outlook changed him as a person.
I found Jacobs’ exercise both fascinating and revealing. I think many people think of the Bible, especially the Hebrew Scriptures (what we know as the Old Testament) as a bunch of laws and regulations and repeated commands of “thou shalt not.” And, to a certain point, that’s what it is. One way of understanding the Bible is that it provides guidance for how to live our lives in a way that will please God and honor our neighbor.
But, as Jacobs found out, the Bible is so much more than that. If we only look at it as a giant Miss Manners book, we miss the meaning behind the law. God didn’t want the Israelites to live a certain way because God is a strict disciplinarian. God wanted the Israelites to grow closer to God through a sacred lifestyle that set them apart from the surrounding pagan cultures.
In other words, the Bible is a means to an end – living a life in relationship with God. I don’t know if Jacobs got that far, but I hope he learned along the way that there’s something more to scripture than just following the rules. There’s the faith and relationship which undergirds and informs our decisions.
I give Jacobs a lot of credit. At least he picked up the book and cracked the spine. I believe a lot of Bibles go unread because people see them as archaic, inaccessible documents. And even if they are brave enough to give it a go, as soon as they hit the first list of “begats” the Bible goes back on the shelf.
I can’t say I blame them. I did the same thing the first time I tried to read the Bible. But what I learned about this dynamic book is that it wasn’t meant necessarily to be read from cover to cover. Instead of thinking of it as one big book, I saw it as a collection of smaller books and letters – a holy library, if you will. Different books were written for different reasons and serve different purposes.
So if someone were to ask me where to start, I wouldn’t say Genesis. I would start with a gospel. Luke is a good choice. Then I would recommend reading the book of Acts, which is the story of the spreading of the good news after Jesus’ resurrection. Then read another gospel, maybe Matthew this time. Then read Romans, Paul’s letter that lays out his understanding of following Jesus.
Regardless of where you start, just reading something in the Bible is the first step. Now that I read it daily, I can’t imagine what life was like without it. It has changed me in ways I couldn’t even have imagined. Yes, we are called to live a lifetime of faith, but the best way to accomplish that is not committing to a year, like Jacobs did. I think we can start with just one day at a time.
02.03.08
There Will Be Awards
I miss reviewing movies. There was a period in my life when I was seeing 2-3 movies a week. I saw the good. I saw the bad. I saw “Weekend at Bernie’s II.”
But life has a way of putting the kibosh on movie-viewing (at least movies that I really want to see). It’s not that I didn’t enjoy Enchanted and Aquamarine, but there simply wasn’t enough action, fistacuffs, or explosions to suit my taste.
Now, when I see movies, I have to be more selective, because my trips to the megaplex are fewer and further between. I’ve missed seeing a lot of shows in the theater and have to catch them on DVD, which is like listening to a football game on the radio. Not quite the same.
One movie I did make a point to see in the theaters was “There Will Be Blood.” I’ve always been a huge Daniel Day-Lewis fan (did you know he was considered for the role of Jesus in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ?) ever since My Left Foot and still consider his performance as Bill “The Butcher” Cutting in Gangs of New York as one of the best I’ve ever seen. Adrien Brody was amazing in The Pianist, but Day-Lewis should have won. What a powerhouse performance.
Speaking of which, “There Will Be Blood” may be the best movie I’ve ever seen. Now, let me clarify what that means. It doesn’t movie I loved the movie. In fact, I’m not even sure I liked it. “Blood” is not the kind of movie that you like, at least not in the same way you like “Die Hard Like a Fruitcake” or “Rocky XIX: The Colostomy.” Some movies you like, some movies you love; “Blood” is a movie you simply experience.
The movie is so grand in scope and reach that the only word that can describe it is epic. The cinematography is epic. The score is epic. The story is epic. And the performance of Day-Lewis as oil entrepreneur Daniel Plainview is the epic-est (new word for ya!).
Day-Lewis has a way of morphing into a character so completely that you forget you’re watching an actor. He so becomes the grizzled, hard-hearted Plainview that you feel like you are watching a documentary instead of a work of fiction. his performance is haunting and I still find myself thinking about it (even more so when I see the latest commercial for the film with Plainview screaming “I abandoned my son” with severe vein-popping intensity). It may be the only movie I didn’t like that I want to see again.
If either the movie or Day-Lewis don’t win, next year’s Oscar statuettes should be given with grocery bags over their heads. No movie comes close to matching the storytelling and vision of “There Will Be Blood” (“Juno”? C’mon!), and no performance, this year or any year, measures up to Day-Lewis.
12.28.07
A “Golden” controversy
Some of you may know that in a previous life, I wrote movie reviews for a couple local papers in Louisville. It was a great job: getting paid to eat popcorn and write about movies. That’s a lot easier than writing about God! In fact, sometimes when I’m stuck or looking for inspiration, I’ll go see a movie.
The difference for me now is, instead of watching a movie through a critic’s eye, I’m watching it through a Christian’s eye. So many movies today contain deep spiritual truths embedded in their compelling storylines and explosive special effects. And of course, many others convey an anti-Christian message.
Take, for example, the recent controversy over “The Golden Compass,” the movie based on a book by atheist author Philip Pullman. Opponents claimed that the movie was anti-Christian and was based on a series of book in which a God-like character is killed. While I didn’t see the movie, I did read the first book and plan to read the other two in the series.
But would I let my kids read them? That’s the question I want to answer when I finish them, and one I think we as Christians need to think about. Our children and grandchildren are saturated by popular culture at a level we can’t even imagine. The explosion of the Internet and other media technology have put virtually millions of songs, images, and videos out our fingertips. When it comes to the larger culture, what’s a Christian to do?
Some people think Christians should completely divorce themselves from anything outside the realm of the church. This approach of alienation seeks to cut off Christians from the evil influence of society. But my experience has been that the best way to get a kid to do something is to tell them they can’t do it. Because pop culture is so pervasive, alienation is not a realistic strategy unless you are willing to go to extremes (like the Amish, for instance).
The opposite end of alienation is accommodation. Some Christians are open to the outside culture, but in a naïve or uncritical way. Instead of processing what’s coming into their eyes and ears through a Christian filter, accommodators devour whatever they can get their hands on, and often their lives don’t look much different from the lives of their non-Christian friends. Their faith has little or no bearing on their life.
The middle ground, which I strive to stand on, is what is called engagement. Instead of alienating myself from the culture, or uncritically taking it in, I like to try and participate from a Christian perspective. Jesus called this being in the world, but not of it. The only way we can redeem and transform those around us is by engaging them at their level. As a pastor, I try to stay conversant in what’s popular in today’s world, for the purpose of being able to discuss it and help people think about it from a Christian mindset (as we have done here at CCC with “The DaVinci Code” and “The Life of Pi,” among many others).
For example, Leigh and I are reading “To Kill a Mockingbird” with our daughter Sydney. The derogatory name for African-Americans (the “n-word”) is used liberally throughout the book. When I came upon it the first time, I mumbled and stumbled and finally replaced it with “that guy.” Later, I talked with Sydney about what that word meant and why we don’t use it anymore. Was I going to accommodate the word and say it? No way. Was I going to completely avoid it? I could, but I would miss the teaching opportunity.
Engagement means meeting the culture where it is for the purpose of education and transformation. Don’t miss the teaching opportunities our culture presents us every day. I plan on seeing “The Golden Compass,” and then I hope to have some really good conversations about it afterward.
08.19.07
Back to High School
A few weeks ago, my daughter Sydney wrote “The Best Day of My Life” on our family calendar. The date was Friday, August 17. What, you ask, would prompt such an effusive declaration? Was it a planned trip to a memorable location, maybe a museum or amusement park? Was it a day spent frolicking with her beloved family? Was she going to a Reds game?
No. It was the debut of “High School Musical 2″ on the Disney Channel.
Our house has been overrun with High School Musical (HSM) fever. Sydney first caught the bug several months ago and instantly went into fanatic mode, gobbling up anything that had to do with HSM. My sweet little girl became a star stalker, learning every minute detail about HSM star Ashley Tisdale, just in case she made in on “Jeopardy” and had to know Tisdale’s birthday, favorite color, or hat size. (I’m hoping, with a few more mentions of Ashley Tisdale, to spike the number of hits on this blog to over 1,000. Ashley. Tisdale.)
You have to give Disney credit. They know how to market a movie. Once HSM was on our radar screen, we realized its merchandise was ubiquitous. I mean, it was everywhere. HSM T-shirts at the mall. HSM posters at Wal-Mart. HSM motor oil at Pep Boys. Ok, that’s not true. They only had HSM transmission fluid.
And HSM continues the tradition of Disney movies with missing parents. In this one, Gabriella (the Juliet to Troy Bolton’s Romeo) has a single mom. No dad in the picture, but that’s par for the Disney course. Bambi had a promiscuous deadbeat dad, leaving Bambi’s mom to do the deer-rearing (that’s fun to say out loud). Cinderella was under the thumb of her wicked stepmother; no father in sight. Ariel, the Little Mermaid, had King Triton for a dad, but no mom. In “Beauty and the Beast,” Belle had a single dad. Does Disney have something against nuclear families? Where were Snow White’s parents? Or Aladdin’s?
And when they do dare to have two parents in the picture, one usually gets killed. Bambi’s mom. Dead. Simba’s dad. Dead. Nemo’s mom. Dead. Kinda morbid for a kid-friendly mega-conglomerate, if you ask me.
Unfortunately for parents of most 8- to 14-year-olds, it looks like no one in the HSM gang is going to be killed off anytime soon. Pity. HSM 2 was a continuation of the platonic tween love and “Mean Girls” catfighting that my wife and I saw in the original. At least 100 times. A week.
To be honest, I actually liked the music from the first one. The songs on the second one (yes, it’s only been out one day,and not only do we ready own the soundtrack, Sydney has memorized most of the songs) don’t seem quite as catchy, but once you’re heard them a gazillion times, they begin to grow on you. What’s most important is that Sydney really seems to enjoy it, and even her little sister Molly pays attention.
And the best news of all? This is absolutely no joke. Coming in Fall 2008 to a theater near you: High School Musical 3. May Mickey have mercy on our souls.
01.24.07
Thoughts on “24″
We’re now 5 hours into the new season of “24.” Once again, let me state as a disclaimer that I am ashamed at how addicted I am to this show. I usually pride myself on the fact that TV holds no sway over me. But I’m hopelessly hooked on “24,” and would definitely not object to having a son named Jack Bauer Wilcoxson. All that being said, here are some random thoughts on the new season…
The first four hours were much slower than last year (nuclear bomb notwithstanding). It seems as if the writers are creating more of an atmosphere this year, and that’s taken some time here in the beginning. This year’s start has been more of a slow burn compared to last year’s flash bang (I still miss David Palmer).
I had trouble getting into the show this year because I recognized so many of the new faces from other shows or movies: Kal Penn (“Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle“), Michael Angarano (“Sky High“) and especially Peter MacNicol (who, to me, will always be the museum stoolie from “Ghostbusters 2“). It was hard for me to see them as their characters on “24,” but now that Penn and Angarano are out of the picture, it should be easier (although I’ve noticed that MacNicol’s Southern accent fades in and out quite frequently). We’ll see how I handle it when the farmer from “Babe” (James Cromwell) shows up as Jack’s father.
As much as the shooting of Curtis shocked me, it seemed very out of character for Curtis to act that way. He’s always been incredibly loyal and a straight shooter, so for him to break protocol (even for such a compelling reason) bothered me. It’s as if the writers had to think of a reason to off an important character just to maintain the shock factor. Unlike Edgar’s death, which fit into the storyline, this one seemed contrived.
Speaking of contrived, I’m not even close to buying the fact that Graham (the Blue Tooth bad guy from last season) is Jack’s brother. That feels very manipulated to me. The writers are going to have to spend a LOT of time on the family backstory to make me believe this connection. Maybe Jack’s father is the missing piece that explains it. And is Jack’s father in cohoots with the bad guys?
I’m having trouble buying Wayne Palmer as president. Gregory Itzin did such a fabulous job last year that anyone following him was in for a challenge. Wayne Palmer was a great sidekick to his brother David, but he doesn’t seem like presidential material to me. There was an interesting article on this in Sunday’s Tribune. You can read it here.
Obviously, there’s still a bad guy pulling Fayed’s strings. My early candidate is Assad. Yes, he’s supposed to be working for peace, but it would be just like the writers to take a character they work hard to make look good, and then turn him bad. The writers have a knack for making the most convincing characters do a switch (Nina Myers, Pres. Logan).
My vote for favorite couple so far? Wayne Palmer’s sister and that snippy FBI agent. Worst couple? Chloe’s ex-husband and Milo.
So, what do you think?
12.01.06
Rev-commendations
I like to keep one foot in the popular culture so that I can be conversant about what my congregants are enjoying. That’s a fancy way of saying I like to go to movies, read books, and listen to CDs. As some of you may know, in a former life I was a journalist, and one of my duties was writing movie and music reviews for the Louisville Courier-Journal. Although having kids puts a serious crimp in my movie attendance, I still try to keep up with popular culture as much as I can (my only non-church magazine subscription is to Entertainment Weekly). I also occasionally will be lucky enough to get a review in the Louisville Music News.
So in an effort to share with you my latest consumptions, I offer some random reviews for your enjoyment. I’d like to hear what you’ve seen read, and listened to lately that you’ve liked, so feel free to share!
MOVIES
The Prestige - Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman – I’ve been surprised by the “love it or hate it” reviews I’ve read about this one. I saw “The Illusionist” with Edward Norton and was slightly disappointed, so I had higher hopes for “The Prestige.” It was more than worth the price of admission. Christian Bale is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors (check out “American Psycho” if you dare), and Hugh Jackman proves to a worthy on-screen adversary. The story is well-paced and not too hard to follow, considering the number of twists. The director, Christopher Nolan (who did one of my all-time favorites, “Memento“) really knows how to tell a story. He does a great job of making you think you know the twists (I figured out a couple of them early on, which I don’t usually do), then going in a completely opposite direction. “The Prestige” is probably 20 minutes too long, but the payoff was worth it for me.
An Inconvenient Truth - Al Gore – First of all, this movie isn’t about politics (so stop rolling your eyes, Mom!). Regardless of what you think about Al Gore, this documentary (which amounts to nothing more than a PowerPoint presentation with a few vignettes thrown in) is a must-see for everyone. Gore presents incontrovertible evidence of the effects global warming is having on the earth. I’m not a tree-hugger by any stretch, but I can easily see the implications for our environment if we keep going at this pace. I even used part of this movie in my public speaking class. It’s a compelling argument that thankfully ends with a word of hope. You owe it to your kids and grandkids to watch it, or else they may not have much of a planet on which to live.
BOOKS
The Ruins - Scott Smith – I really enjoy Smith’s other (and only) book “A Simple Plan,” which was turned into a movie starring Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton (the movie, while good, make some significant departures from the book, which ticked me off). “The Ruins” goes in a completely different direction as Smith tries his hand at horror. Smith attempts to mix suspense with character study, but never really makes enough headway in either area. He doesn’t spend adequate time developing his characters before putting them in peril and asking us to root for or against them. The book is fairly predictable, and while Smith’s writing style is enjoyable, Stephen King owns this genre. I hope Smith moves in another direction with his next book.
CDs
Go! – Newsboys – I’m a huge fan of the Christian rock group the Newsboys, and have been for about a decade. In the past few years they’ve made a departure from their typical style of music to make two very good worship albums. “Go!” represents their return to their style of pious power pop, and it’s just as good as I would have hoped. While still a notch below their last rock album, “Living in Stereo,” “Go!” has the same catchy tunes and sing-along lyrics that have made the Newsboys so popular. This is about as radio-friendly as Christian rock gets.
Good Monsters – Jars of Clay - Some albums I listen to I like right away; others don’t last an hour in my CD player. And then there are those that take a few listens for me to get it. When I first listened to “Good Monsters,” I thought it was quite good, but not much more than that. But after a few more spins, the album has seriously grown on me. It’s catchier than anything I can remember Jars of Clay doing, and manages to be both more accessible and deeper than just about any Christian CD that I’ve heard. This album has been hyped for months by CCM Magazine as a career-definer for the band, which automatically made me skeptical. I can now say that the magazine got it right, and “Good Monsters” is simply a tremendous album about the struggles and triumphs of being faithful.
So, what do you recommend?
11.15.06
Another 24 Hours
OK, enough posts about trivialities like sermons and God. Let’s get to the serious stuff: less than 2 months until the premiere of “24″!! I admit I am shamelessly addicted to this show; I’ve seen every episode since the first episode of the first season. I try not to let myself get too caught up in TV shows; I’ve promised myself I won’t faithfully follow more than one show at a time. Otherwise, I’d spend WAY too much time in front of the boob tube (hence our success at warding off the desire to buy a TiVo – so far!). If there’s a show that I really want to see, I wait until it comes out on DVD (and on the eighth day, God created Netflix).
But 24 is the perfect show for me – it doesn’t require me to think too much (like another show I enjoy, “Lost“) but it’s not mindless entertainment (think “Two and A Half Men” – not even worth a link). Another thing I like about “24″ is the cliffhanger aspect. It’s not unlike the old serials that ended with the hero in peril and kept you on pins and needles until the next week’s episode. Sure it raises logistical questions (why don’t we ever see Jack Bauer go to the bathroom?), but it is fast-paced, excellently-acted entertainment (Gregory Itzin was robbed – he should have won an Emmy).
So we’re coming up on Day 6 (for those of you who haven’t watched the show, you’re only 140 hours behind – there’s still time to catch up!). And once again Jack Bauer (the man I still want to be when I grow up) is in all kinds of trouble. The trailer for the new season is now available and gives all kinds of cool teasers (Wayne Palmer is president?!?).
Once the season starts (with a 4-hour premiere on on Jan. 14 and 15) I’ll be posting regularly with questions and speculations. I hope you 24 veterans will keep up, and that rookies will check out this great show.
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
){kind=link}
