Well, it's over already, and I can't believe it! Three days in and my preaching portion is completed. I feel that it went well, but it wasn't really that way until I went in a practiced in the chapel before lunch. That is a very important thing I've realized; having a chance to really stretch your vocals and to let that power flow through you and come out is a real nerve settler.
Looking back on the sermon and the class comments (haven't read the evaluations yet), I feel that many people took things to heart in their own way and went with it, which is what I had hoped to accomplish. I was hoping to draw a duality between reflection and action and achieved that from the sounds of it. Some people were more drawn to the reflection offered by the song and the idea of us being in the wilderness, while some were more drawn to the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and the action that we are called to for one another.
I was really happy with it, and I think that the song really did a good job integrating the thoughts into a final meditation that helped stir the thoughts from the sermon.
I really liked the comments and feedback I got, it reminds me that there are still growing edges to be sharpened, but also I am always humbled by the words that are shared by my brothers and sisters in Christ.
I thank all of you and God for this wonderful week so far and I look forward to helping draw out each other in the next two days of proclamation.
In that wonderful Holy Spirit,
Jonathan
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Reading questions
Flickering Pixels, Chapters 9-12
Is real beauty visible at all in an image? Hipps argues that even the 'natural' images that we see are modified beyond recognition, but what about the internal beauty that our Creator blessed us with; how do we see this beauty in our cultural images?
It is easy to see the duality that Hipps creates around the issue of cell phone technology; it is more and more visible in much of the young generation. While Hipps calls this a tribe of individuals, our faith calls us to give up the self-centeredness for the care of the other. How does the church represent a counter-cultural stance in the midst of such a widely used media? Does it? Should it?
I know there is no sarcasm font on the computer, but my supervisor used to tell me of a storage place he had for all the disgruntled and angry correspondences he'd received over the years. How do we as pastors deal with parishioners who respond in anger? Should we respond in a certain way depending on the situation? Or the person?
The last question leads into my final question regarding conflict. It is said that the most thriving congregations are usually ones who have a small amount of conflict brewing all the time to keep the congregation active. How do you see yourself as a church leader working in a situation like this?
Is real beauty visible at all in an image? Hipps argues that even the 'natural' images that we see are modified beyond recognition, but what about the internal beauty that our Creator blessed us with; how do we see this beauty in our cultural images?
It is easy to see the duality that Hipps creates around the issue of cell phone technology; it is more and more visible in much of the young generation. While Hipps calls this a tribe of individuals, our faith calls us to give up the self-centeredness for the care of the other. How does the church represent a counter-cultural stance in the midst of such a widely used media? Does it? Should it?
I know there is no sarcasm font on the computer, but my supervisor used to tell me of a storage place he had for all the disgruntled and angry correspondences he'd received over the years. How do we as pastors deal with parishioners who respond in anger? Should we respond in a certain way depending on the situation? Or the person?
The last question leads into my final question regarding conflict. It is said that the most thriving congregations are usually ones who have a small amount of conflict brewing all the time to keep the congregation active. How do you see yourself as a church leader working in a situation like this?
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Updated sermon stuff
Thanks to the thoughts and posts, I think I've found a better placement of the tech for the sermon:
There once was a couple who wanted to become a family. After having their first child with little trouble, the parents struggled mightily to have a second. Complications always seemed to arise, and it took four and a half years of pain and questions for the family to have their second child. The newborn was the picture of health for the first couple of weeks but quickly developed an infection that needed hospitalization to treat. The father, being so worried about his newborn son, visited the child every day and would sing him the song, Bridge Over Troubled Waters by Simon and Garfunkel. As the story goes, every time the child heard that song the baby’s heart rate would stabilize and the conditions eased bit by bit; this song seemed to give him strength and seemed to draw out the illness. The child eventually recovered and became very fond of the song and the story associated with it.
To this day, however, I do not know if my father sang that song more for himself or for me. I can see it fitting both of us quite well, my father asking for help from God as he was worried and needed comforting, or my father assuring me that he was by my side. This song came to mind last night as I sat thinking on ways to relate the presence of the Holy Spirit in our Gospel reading. The presence of the Holy Spirit rests with Christ in our story of struggle much the way I am sure that the Holy Spirit rested with my father and me in the hospital. And like my father and I in the hospital needing support, I can see the struggle we faced echoed in stories all around the world. It is in these echoes that I see our Gospel taking on a call to action for us on this day.
Our Gospel begins with a punch- Jesus was full of it. The Spirit I mean. Right away we are hit with our first dose of reality. Christ walking away from his baptism and into the wilderness is filled with the Holy Spirit. How do we see this meaning in our lives? We too claim the presence of the Holy Spirit in daily life in our creed, but are those words to us or do we take them to be the reality of everyday life?
We should see ourselves and one another pulsing with the Spirit of Christ in each breath, but it seems so easy to see each other by our humanity and our pitfalls: we are our houses, our cars or our electronic devices; we are who we know, or we are our jobs. And when we see each other by our humanity it can be easy to find one another unworthy of our time and our assistance because they are far away, faceless, nameless, and might be scamming us. But the Spirit brings us to the realization that all of us are worthy to be loved by God and that we are led by the Spirit to love one another.
Ah, so the Spirit leads us somewhere. That brings us to the next description in our Gospel. Christ is led by the Spirit into the wilderness. The Spirit leads Jesus! We Lutherans love to talk about Jesus, but here we see a wonderful glimpse into the Trinitarian God- a God in relationship! The Spirit is leading Christ to a place without food, separated from his family and friends, into isolation for an extended period of time. The Spirit lead Jesus into isolation, and it may seem a little strange: why would the Spirit draw Christ away from people?
I believe it is because this was the true test of the humanity of Christ by the devil. This was not a public display of power against Christ by the devil, we see how quickly Jesus tosses demons out of people in the Gospels, this was something different. This was the Spirit-filled Christ walking down into the viper’s den. Jesus walked into a situation where the devil could tempt his humanity. Jesus walked into a situation where he was humanly tempted to satisfy human desires of food, power, and safety. And the devil brings his ‘A’ game to try and test Jesus, with such a crafty and deceptive set of propositions
At first blush, these tests do not seem so insidious. Feed yourself, acknowledge the power the devil has over the world, make God deliver on the promises of Psalm 91. But in particular, I see the first test as the big attack by the devil on the potentially sinful humanity of Christ, and it is where I would like us to focus.
The situation is pretty clear: Jesus is hungry and has the power and authority to create bread from rocks, so the devil asks, ‘why not?’ This wouldn’t be the first time God has done something like this: miraculous feedings are something that happens throughout the Scriptures and not just by God directly, but by agents of God as well, and Christ would even perform similar feats later in his ministry. What’s the big deal?
To find out what the big deal is we should ask ourselves: What is driving the request by the devil? Is it to test Christ’s ability to manipulate matter and energy? No. Is it to test the capacity for Christ to live without food? No, I don’t think that is it either. What the devil is really testing Christ over is the willingness of Christ to go against God and sate the human hunger at the expense of stepping away from God’s will, to step away from the trust Christ has in God.
Christ walks into the den of the devil, is tempted by the devil personally, and denies the devil at each opportunity for sin. Christ does this so effectively, and so easy it seems. With this defeating of the devil achieved so swiftly, it can be really hard to try and see ourselves in this story. I mean, I know I do not have an easy time denying temptation of a frozen Twix bar after dinner, let alone more serious and consequential issues!
Where are we in the story? It can seem pretty easy to see how Luke considers the world being in the possession of the devil in his time, implying that the worldly kingdoms were the devil’s to hand over to Christ. And for us, judging by the looks of things in the modern times, it can feel like the situation has not really changed any. But I do not see us in a world that is overrun with sin, human evil, hunger, poverty, war, pollution and a dying and drying up planet.
I see us in this wilderness too. I see us powered by the Holy Spirit drawing us into experiencing the struggle of the world, into our modern day devil’s den. Our world is an angry wilderness, a digitally driven desert, and a place of struggle with sinful humans and structures. But we must remember that as children of God we have been empowered with the Holy Spirit, just as Christ was at His baptism. In the Spirit, we are led into this wilderness of our world to be tempted in many of the same ways. We too pray for things such as an end to hunger, world peace, and for a safe and healthy life. What motivates us to pray for these things?
But let us ask ourselves the same question we asked about the devil: What is driving the request? Why do we pray for these things? Do we believe that world hunger can only be solved by God with a wave of the heavenly hand over the crops of the earth? Do we pray for peace by conquest or by freedom and liberty our way and no other way? Do we pray for a safe and healthy life but turn around and think nasty thoughts about our friends and family and cut one another down?
Rob Bell, in his DVD, “Open” puts forth the wonderfully simple statement: Don’t ask God to feed the hungry when you have plenty of food.
Our life in the Spirit can be expressed very succinctly in Rob’s statement- When we have been empowered by the Spirit, why do we assume that God does not count on us, his good Creation, to answer the prayers of the world?
Jesus was right folks, we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Humanity has the capability to feed itself, but people die of hunger every day. How does this happen? So quickly that crafty devil continues to draw us away from God’s command to live by and for God alone by saying to ourselves, “We have bread, but we cannot share what we have because we need bread for tomorrow, so let us pray that God will give more bread for everyone else.” It is in this response of Jesus that we can see how powerful our bread from heaven is. Every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord is calling us to walk in this wilderness to stand alongside and to struggle with those who hunger physically and spiritually, and ultimately to feed one another in these ways. My friends, we are in this wilderness together with the Spirit for reasons just like this. Let us not create more bread for ourselves, but let us share the bread that we have been given at a meal and in conversation with each other about God. We are in this wilderness with the Spirit and we have the ability to walk with each other in our pains and our sorrows of loss and want.
And this is where we are supposed to be. Christ walked into the wilderness and came back from it, continuing to push away temptation and draw closer to God. Christ continued in his walk to the cross living the abundant reality of the presence of God in our lives, and he walked through the veil of death and into our lives calling us to live for God and one another. When we create a community that lives and breathes with the Spirit, we can see the devil and sin failing at each temptation and falling back in retreat. Christ continues to walk in our lives, walking among us when we walk with each other in our struggles and pain. May we be continually empowered by the Spirit to do the same in our daily living.
As a closing meditation, I would like to play this song that my father used to sing to me. As we are in the wilderness, our times will be rough and we will be tempted, but I hope this song will remind us that we have each other and God walking with us in this wild adventure.
There once was a couple who wanted to become a family. After having their first child with little trouble, the parents struggled mightily to have a second. Complications always seemed to arise, and it took four and a half years of pain and questions for the family to have their second child. The newborn was the picture of health for the first couple of weeks but quickly developed an infection that needed hospitalization to treat. The father, being so worried about his newborn son, visited the child every day and would sing him the song, Bridge Over Troubled Waters by Simon and Garfunkel. As the story goes, every time the child heard that song the baby’s heart rate would stabilize and the conditions eased bit by bit; this song seemed to give him strength and seemed to draw out the illness. The child eventually recovered and became very fond of the song and the story associated with it.
To this day, however, I do not know if my father sang that song more for himself or for me. I can see it fitting both of us quite well, my father asking for help from God as he was worried and needed comforting, or my father assuring me that he was by my side. This song came to mind last night as I sat thinking on ways to relate the presence of the Holy Spirit in our Gospel reading. The presence of the Holy Spirit rests with Christ in our story of struggle much the way I am sure that the Holy Spirit rested with my father and me in the hospital. And like my father and I in the hospital needing support, I can see the struggle we faced echoed in stories all around the world. It is in these echoes that I see our Gospel taking on a call to action for us on this day.
Our Gospel begins with a punch- Jesus was full of it. The Spirit I mean. Right away we are hit with our first dose of reality. Christ walking away from his baptism and into the wilderness is filled with the Holy Spirit. How do we see this meaning in our lives? We too claim the presence of the Holy Spirit in daily life in our creed, but are those words to us or do we take them to be the reality of everyday life?
We should see ourselves and one another pulsing with the Spirit of Christ in each breath, but it seems so easy to see each other by our humanity and our pitfalls: we are our houses, our cars or our electronic devices; we are who we know, or we are our jobs. And when we see each other by our humanity it can be easy to find one another unworthy of our time and our assistance because they are far away, faceless, nameless, and might be scamming us. But the Spirit brings us to the realization that all of us are worthy to be loved by God and that we are led by the Spirit to love one another.
Ah, so the Spirit leads us somewhere. That brings us to the next description in our Gospel. Christ is led by the Spirit into the wilderness. The Spirit leads Jesus! We Lutherans love to talk about Jesus, but here we see a wonderful glimpse into the Trinitarian God- a God in relationship! The Spirit is leading Christ to a place without food, separated from his family and friends, into isolation for an extended period of time. The Spirit lead Jesus into isolation, and it may seem a little strange: why would the Spirit draw Christ away from people?
I believe it is because this was the true test of the humanity of Christ by the devil. This was not a public display of power against Christ by the devil, we see how quickly Jesus tosses demons out of people in the Gospels, this was something different. This was the Spirit-filled Christ walking down into the viper’s den. Jesus walked into a situation where the devil could tempt his humanity. Jesus walked into a situation where he was humanly tempted to satisfy human desires of food, power, and safety. And the devil brings his ‘A’ game to try and test Jesus, with such a crafty and deceptive set of propositions
At first blush, these tests do not seem so insidious. Feed yourself, acknowledge the power the devil has over the world, make God deliver on the promises of Psalm 91. But in particular, I see the first test as the big attack by the devil on the potentially sinful humanity of Christ, and it is where I would like us to focus.
The situation is pretty clear: Jesus is hungry and has the power and authority to create bread from rocks, so the devil asks, ‘why not?’ This wouldn’t be the first time God has done something like this: miraculous feedings are something that happens throughout the Scriptures and not just by God directly, but by agents of God as well, and Christ would even perform similar feats later in his ministry. What’s the big deal?
To find out what the big deal is we should ask ourselves: What is driving the request by the devil? Is it to test Christ’s ability to manipulate matter and energy? No. Is it to test the capacity for Christ to live without food? No, I don’t think that is it either. What the devil is really testing Christ over is the willingness of Christ to go against God and sate the human hunger at the expense of stepping away from God’s will, to step away from the trust Christ has in God.
Christ walks into the den of the devil, is tempted by the devil personally, and denies the devil at each opportunity for sin. Christ does this so effectively, and so easy it seems. With this defeating of the devil achieved so swiftly, it can be really hard to try and see ourselves in this story. I mean, I know I do not have an easy time denying temptation of a frozen Twix bar after dinner, let alone more serious and consequential issues!
Where are we in the story? It can seem pretty easy to see how Luke considers the world being in the possession of the devil in his time, implying that the worldly kingdoms were the devil’s to hand over to Christ. And for us, judging by the looks of things in the modern times, it can feel like the situation has not really changed any. But I do not see us in a world that is overrun with sin, human evil, hunger, poverty, war, pollution and a dying and drying up planet.
I see us in this wilderness too. I see us powered by the Holy Spirit drawing us into experiencing the struggle of the world, into our modern day devil’s den. Our world is an angry wilderness, a digitally driven desert, and a place of struggle with sinful humans and structures. But we must remember that as children of God we have been empowered with the Holy Spirit, just as Christ was at His baptism. In the Spirit, we are led into this wilderness of our world to be tempted in many of the same ways. We too pray for things such as an end to hunger, world peace, and for a safe and healthy life. What motivates us to pray for these things?
But let us ask ourselves the same question we asked about the devil: What is driving the request? Why do we pray for these things? Do we believe that world hunger can only be solved by God with a wave of the heavenly hand over the crops of the earth? Do we pray for peace by conquest or by freedom and liberty our way and no other way? Do we pray for a safe and healthy life but turn around and think nasty thoughts about our friends and family and cut one another down?
Rob Bell, in his DVD, “Open” puts forth the wonderfully simple statement: Don’t ask God to feed the hungry when you have plenty of food.
Our life in the Spirit can be expressed very succinctly in Rob’s statement- When we have been empowered by the Spirit, why do we assume that God does not count on us, his good Creation, to answer the prayers of the world?
Jesus was right folks, we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Humanity has the capability to feed itself, but people die of hunger every day. How does this happen? So quickly that crafty devil continues to draw us away from God’s command to live by and for God alone by saying to ourselves, “We have bread, but we cannot share what we have because we need bread for tomorrow, so let us pray that God will give more bread for everyone else.” It is in this response of Jesus that we can see how powerful our bread from heaven is. Every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord is calling us to walk in this wilderness to stand alongside and to struggle with those who hunger physically and spiritually, and ultimately to feed one another in these ways. My friends, we are in this wilderness together with the Spirit for reasons just like this. Let us not create more bread for ourselves, but let us share the bread that we have been given at a meal and in conversation with each other about God. We are in this wilderness with the Spirit and we have the ability to walk with each other in our pains and our sorrows of loss and want.
And this is where we are supposed to be. Christ walked into the wilderness and came back from it, continuing to push away temptation and draw closer to God. Christ continued in his walk to the cross living the abundant reality of the presence of God in our lives, and he walked through the veil of death and into our lives calling us to live for God and one another. When we create a community that lives and breathes with the Spirit, we can see the devil and sin failing at each temptation and falling back in retreat. Christ continues to walk in our lives, walking among us when we walk with each other in our struggles and pain. May we be continually empowered by the Spirit to do the same in our daily living.
As a closing meditation, I would like to play this song that my father used to sing to me. As we are in the wilderness, our times will be rough and we will be tempted, but I hope this song will remind us that we have each other and God walking with us in this wild adventure.
Sermon draft 1
Sermon outline:
There once was a couple who wanted to become a family. After having their first child with little trouble, the parents struggled mightily to have a second. Complications always seemed to arise, but four and a half years after having their first, the family had their second child. The newborn was the picture of health for the first couple of weeks but quickly developed an infection that necessitated he be transported back to the hospital. The father, being so worried about his son, visited the child every day and would sing him a song. I would like to play this song now for you:
Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Waters
Every time the child heard that song it gave him strength and seemed to draw out illness. The child eventually recovered and became very fond of the song and the story associated with it. To this day, however, I do not know if my father sang that song more for himself or for me. I can see it fitting both of us quite well, my father asking for comfort as he was worried and needed comforting, or my father assuring me that he was by my side. and I can see the struggle that my father faced echoed in stories all around the world. This song gave him comfort and every time he sang it to me as I grew up, I was comforted by the connection and words that were shared in the song.
This song came to mind last night as I sat trying to find ways to talk about the presence of the Holy Spirit in our Gospel reading. The presence of the Holy Spirit rests with Christ in our story of struggle much the way I am sure that the Holy Spirit rested with my father and me in the hospital. But like my father in the hospital, I can see the struggle he faced echoed in stories all around the world. It is in these echoes that I see our Gospel taking on a call to action for us on this day.
Christ was full of it. The Spirit I mean. We too claim the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives in our creed, but are those words to us or do we take them to be the reality of our daily lives? We should see ourselves and one another pulsing with the Spirit of Christ in each breath, but it seems so easy to see each other by our humanity and our pitfalls: we are our houses, we are who we know, and we are our jobs. And when we see each other by our humanity it can be easy to find one another unworthy of our time and our assistance. But the Spirit brings us to the realization that all of us are worthy to be loved by God and that we are led by the Spirit to love one another.
Being led by the Spirit brings us to the next description in our Gospel. Christ is led by the Spirit into the wilderness. The Spirit leads Jesus to a place without food, separated from his family and friends, into isolation for an extended period of time. The Spirit lead Jesus into isolation, and it may seem a little strange: why would the Spirit draw Christ away from people?
I believe it is because this was the true test the humanity of Christ by the devil. This was not a public display of power against Christ by the devil, this was Christ filled with the Spirit, walking down into the viper’s den. Jesus walked into a situation where the devil could tempt his humanity. And so it is that the devil is able to tempt Jesus.
At first blush, these tests do not seem so insidious. Feed yourself, acknowledge the power the devil has over the world, make God deliver on the promises of Psalm 91. But in particular, I see the first test as the big attack by the devil on the humanity of Christ, and it is where I would like us to focus.
The situation is pretty clear: Jesus is hungry and has the power and authority to create bread from rocks, so the devil asks, ‘why not?’ This wouldn’t be the first time God has done something like this: miraculous feedings are something that happens throughout the Scriptures and not just by God directly, but by agents of God as well, and Christ would even perform a similar feat later in his ministry. What’s the issue here?
We should ask ourselves, what is driving the request by the devil? Is it to test Christ’s ability to manipulate matter and energy? No. Is it to test the capacity for Christ to live without food? No, I don’t think that is it either. What the devil is really testing Christ about is the willingness of Christ to go against God and sate the human hunger at the expense of stepping away from God’s will
Christ walks into the den of the devil, is tempted by the devil personally, and denies the devil at each opportunity for sin. Christ does this so effectively, and seemingly so easily. With this defeating of the devil achieved so swiftly, it can be really hard to try and see ourselves in this story. I mean, I know I do not have an easy time denying temptation of a frozen Twix bar after dinner, let alone more serious and consequential issues.
Where are we in the story? The writer of Luke states that the kingdom of the earth is in the possession of the devil, and judging by the looks of things in the modern times, it can certainly seem that way. But I do not see us merely in the world that is overrun with sin, human evil, hunger, poverty, war, pollution and a dying and drying up planet. I see us in this wilderness too. I see us powered by the Holy Spirit drawing us into experiencing the struggle of the world, into the modern day devil’s den. Our world is a technological wilderness, a digital desert, and a place of struggle with sin. But we must remember that as children of God we have been empowered with the Holy Spirit, just as Christ was at His baptism. In the Spirit, we are led into this wilderness of our world to be tempted in many of the same ways. We too pray for things such as an end to hunger, world peace, and for a safe and healthy life. What motivates us to pray for these things?
But I would ask us: why do we pray for these things? Do we believe that world hunger can only be solved by God with a wavy of the heavenly hand over the crops of the earth? Do we pray for peace by conquest or by freedom and liberty our way and no other way? Do we pray for a safe and healthy life but turn around and think nasty thoughts about our friends and family and cut one another down?
Rob Bell, in a DVD titled “Prayer” puts forth the wonderfully simple statement: Don’t pray for God to end hunger if you have food to share. Jesus was right folks, we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Humanity has the capability to feed itself, but people die of hunger every day. How does this happen? So quickly that crafty devil continues to draw us away from God’s command to live by and for God alone by saying to ourselves, “We have bread, but we cannot share what we have because we need bread for tomorrow, so let us pray that God will give more bread for everyone else.” My friends, we are in this wilderness together with the Spirit for reasons just like this. We walk in this wilderness to stand alongside and to struggle with those who hunger physically and spiritually and to feed one another. Let us not create more bread for ourselves, but let us share the bread that we have been given at a meal and in conversation with each other about God. We are in this wilderness with the Spirit and we have the ability to walk with each other in our pains and our sorrows of loss and want.
And I think this is where we are supposed to be. Christ walked into the wilderness and to the cross living the abundant reality of the presence of God in our lives. And I see Christ walking amongst us when we walk with each other in our struggles and pain. When we create a community that lives and breathes with the Spirit, we can see the devil and sin failing at each temptation and falling back. Christ came back from the wilderness and continued to push away temptation and draw closer to God. May we be continually empowered by the Spirit to do the same in our daily living.
There once was a couple who wanted to become a family. After having their first child with little trouble, the parents struggled mightily to have a second. Complications always seemed to arise, but four and a half years after having their first, the family had their second child. The newborn was the picture of health for the first couple of weeks but quickly developed an infection that necessitated he be transported back to the hospital. The father, being so worried about his son, visited the child every day and would sing him a song. I would like to play this song now for you:
Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Waters
Every time the child heard that song it gave him strength and seemed to draw out illness. The child eventually recovered and became very fond of the song and the story associated with it. To this day, however, I do not know if my father sang that song more for himself or for me. I can see it fitting both of us quite well, my father asking for comfort as he was worried and needed comforting, or my father assuring me that he was by my side. and I can see the struggle that my father faced echoed in stories all around the world. This song gave him comfort and every time he sang it to me as I grew up, I was comforted by the connection and words that were shared in the song.
This song came to mind last night as I sat trying to find ways to talk about the presence of the Holy Spirit in our Gospel reading. The presence of the Holy Spirit rests with Christ in our story of struggle much the way I am sure that the Holy Spirit rested with my father and me in the hospital. But like my father in the hospital, I can see the struggle he faced echoed in stories all around the world. It is in these echoes that I see our Gospel taking on a call to action for us on this day.
Christ was full of it. The Spirit I mean. We too claim the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives in our creed, but are those words to us or do we take them to be the reality of our daily lives? We should see ourselves and one another pulsing with the Spirit of Christ in each breath, but it seems so easy to see each other by our humanity and our pitfalls: we are our houses, we are who we know, and we are our jobs. And when we see each other by our humanity it can be easy to find one another unworthy of our time and our assistance. But the Spirit brings us to the realization that all of us are worthy to be loved by God and that we are led by the Spirit to love one another.
Being led by the Spirit brings us to the next description in our Gospel. Christ is led by the Spirit into the wilderness. The Spirit leads Jesus to a place without food, separated from his family and friends, into isolation for an extended period of time. The Spirit lead Jesus into isolation, and it may seem a little strange: why would the Spirit draw Christ away from people?
I believe it is because this was the true test the humanity of Christ by the devil. This was not a public display of power against Christ by the devil, this was Christ filled with the Spirit, walking down into the viper’s den. Jesus walked into a situation where the devil could tempt his humanity. And so it is that the devil is able to tempt Jesus.
At first blush, these tests do not seem so insidious. Feed yourself, acknowledge the power the devil has over the world, make God deliver on the promises of Psalm 91. But in particular, I see the first test as the big attack by the devil on the humanity of Christ, and it is where I would like us to focus.
The situation is pretty clear: Jesus is hungry and has the power and authority to create bread from rocks, so the devil asks, ‘why not?’ This wouldn’t be the first time God has done something like this: miraculous feedings are something that happens throughout the Scriptures and not just by God directly, but by agents of God as well, and Christ would even perform a similar feat later in his ministry. What’s the issue here?
We should ask ourselves, what is driving the request by the devil? Is it to test Christ’s ability to manipulate matter and energy? No. Is it to test the capacity for Christ to live without food? No, I don’t think that is it either. What the devil is really testing Christ about is the willingness of Christ to go against God and sate the human hunger at the expense of stepping away from God’s will
Christ walks into the den of the devil, is tempted by the devil personally, and denies the devil at each opportunity for sin. Christ does this so effectively, and seemingly so easily. With this defeating of the devil achieved so swiftly, it can be really hard to try and see ourselves in this story. I mean, I know I do not have an easy time denying temptation of a frozen Twix bar after dinner, let alone more serious and consequential issues.
Where are we in the story? The writer of Luke states that the kingdom of the earth is in the possession of the devil, and judging by the looks of things in the modern times, it can certainly seem that way. But I do not see us merely in the world that is overrun with sin, human evil, hunger, poverty, war, pollution and a dying and drying up planet. I see us in this wilderness too. I see us powered by the Holy Spirit drawing us into experiencing the struggle of the world, into the modern day devil’s den. Our world is a technological wilderness, a digital desert, and a place of struggle with sin. But we must remember that as children of God we have been empowered with the Holy Spirit, just as Christ was at His baptism. In the Spirit, we are led into this wilderness of our world to be tempted in many of the same ways. We too pray for things such as an end to hunger, world peace, and for a safe and healthy life. What motivates us to pray for these things?
But I would ask us: why do we pray for these things? Do we believe that world hunger can only be solved by God with a wavy of the heavenly hand over the crops of the earth? Do we pray for peace by conquest or by freedom and liberty our way and no other way? Do we pray for a safe and healthy life but turn around and think nasty thoughts about our friends and family and cut one another down?
Rob Bell, in a DVD titled “Prayer” puts forth the wonderfully simple statement: Don’t pray for God to end hunger if you have food to share. Jesus was right folks, we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Humanity has the capability to feed itself, but people die of hunger every day. How does this happen? So quickly that crafty devil continues to draw us away from God’s command to live by and for God alone by saying to ourselves, “We have bread, but we cannot share what we have because we need bread for tomorrow, so let us pray that God will give more bread for everyone else.” My friends, we are in this wilderness together with the Spirit for reasons just like this. We walk in this wilderness to stand alongside and to struggle with those who hunger physically and spiritually and to feed one another. Let us not create more bread for ourselves, but let us share the bread that we have been given at a meal and in conversation with each other about God. We are in this wilderness with the Spirit and we have the ability to walk with each other in our pains and our sorrows of loss and want.
And I think this is where we are supposed to be. Christ walked into the wilderness and to the cross living the abundant reality of the presence of God in our lives. And I see Christ walking amongst us when we walk with each other in our struggles and pain. When we create a community that lives and breathes with the Spirit, we can see the devil and sin failing at each temptation and falling back. Christ came back from the wilderness and continued to push away temptation and draw closer to God. May we be continually empowered by the Spirit to do the same in our daily living.
Resources!
Here are my thoughts currently, heading back to the apartment for sermon prep part II:
Thoughts-
Soteriology- Red Grace and Green Grace
Christ’s confrontation with the evil one-
Asking where is God now? Being filled with the Holy Spirit and in desolation? Is this where we are supposed to be?
Not that Christ was incapable of sinning but that Christ was able to avoid sinning although he was tempted- tempted in some really powerful ways
Testing by God is Old Testament kind of stuff- Genesis with Abraham, Exodus with the wilderness and the manna. In the New Testament used in Luke by Jesus against a lawyer and a part of a crowd
God testing someone, but satan tempting someone- temptations nowadays coming more from each other
Temptation- to try and entice someone into doing something, into wanting to do something- they don’t take away the will but they do try to change someone’s will
Knowledge versus will/conviction- many times it isn’t that we don’t know the difference between what is good and what is bad but rather what I want to do- or don’t want to do… or what I am willing to do.
A conflict of wills, a battle of wills
Who are we following? We live ‘by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord’- have we asked ourselves lately who it is we are following in our lives, in our ministry?
Satan recognizing Jesus as the Son of God-
Brian Stoffregen-
It is the responsibility of the parents and of the church not only to teach its baptized members the difference between right and wrong; but also to help motivate them to want to do the right thing. The devil (and much of society) is still around trying to make us want to do the wrong thing.
Tests:
What’s wrong with making food? Christ does it later in his ministry!
Christ is filled with the Holy Spirit, and it leads or drives him into the wilderness- what drives Christ? It is not human need because his human need is a stomach that is going on day 41 of no food- it must be by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord… what if we are being led away from the Word of God by surrounding ourselves and answering purely human needs? What if we begin to rely on answering human needs to find meaning and those people begin relying on us for support and sustenance- that can lead to laziness and anger at those who ‘have more’ or ‘want’.
Christ is the Lord of All, right? Why can’t he start a little early?
The devil has been given all of the worldly kingdoms apparently because they are his to give to whomever he chooses- either this is true or Jesus does not feel that is where the crux of the test is. Christ is offered power, and that temptation is seriously tricky- I wonder if churches fall into this same view- we seek larger and larger numbers trying to achieve as many people coming through the doors each Sunday as are possible, but what are we engaging them in when they are here? Are they numbers, statistics, or quantities, or are they people, individuals, and identities that are inherently priceless to God. Perhaps our focus on worldly success (more is better) seeps into our congregations and communities where deeper discipleship would be more fruitful? We can even go farther there however, and say that a disciple’s faith is far more important than what they do- producing great depth of faith but no fruit at all!
Serving God ties in with this understanding too- if we commit all our energy to serving God we ignore one another, but if we focus too strongly on one another we ignore God- we must balance these two services in a cruciform lifestyle.
What’s the beef with believing the Scriptures? Don’t the angels of God protect Christ?
Using the Scriptures to tempt- Call on God to prove his faithfulness! What more do we need to see the faithfulness of God made visible than Christ! It is obvious that the angels are at His command in the Passion narrative and that satan knows that Christ has this power over heaven, yet not only does Christ ignore this, he willfully submits to the outcomes of his ministry, the crucifixion… listening to a priest say that “God was preparing someone for heaven with a earthly affliction” “Enough faith will make you well”- when we are being made new and have been made well from the eternal sting that is sin and death… Faith has made us well. But that does not stop suffering in the world nor does it omit the faithful from suffering as well.
What more do we need? Do we need miracles to prove the existence of God? When we start looking for ways to prove God, we are not living for God- why do we need proof that God exists? Scientific method? God created the Scientific Method!
The challenge of ethics and our temptation to violate them
Thoughts-
Soteriology- Red Grace and Green Grace
Christ’s confrontation with the evil one-
Asking where is God now? Being filled with the Holy Spirit and in desolation? Is this where we are supposed to be?
Not that Christ was incapable of sinning but that Christ was able to avoid sinning although he was tempted- tempted in some really powerful ways
Testing by God is Old Testament kind of stuff- Genesis with Abraham, Exodus with the wilderness and the manna. In the New Testament used in Luke by Jesus against a lawyer and a part of a crowd
God testing someone, but satan tempting someone- temptations nowadays coming more from each other
Temptation- to try and entice someone into doing something, into wanting to do something- they don’t take away the will but they do try to change someone’s will
Knowledge versus will/conviction- many times it isn’t that we don’t know the difference between what is good and what is bad but rather what I want to do- or don’t want to do… or what I am willing to do.
A conflict of wills, a battle of wills
Who are we following? We live ‘by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord’- have we asked ourselves lately who it is we are following in our lives, in our ministry?
Satan recognizing Jesus as the Son of God-
Brian Stoffregen-
It is the responsibility of the parents and of the church not only to teach its baptized members the difference between right and wrong; but also to help motivate them to want to do the right thing. The devil (and much of society) is still around trying to make us want to do the wrong thing.
Tests:
What’s wrong with making food? Christ does it later in his ministry!
Christ is filled with the Holy Spirit, and it leads or drives him into the wilderness- what drives Christ? It is not human need because his human need is a stomach that is going on day 41 of no food- it must be by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord… what if we are being led away from the Word of God by surrounding ourselves and answering purely human needs? What if we begin to rely on answering human needs to find meaning and those people begin relying on us for support and sustenance- that can lead to laziness and anger at those who ‘have more’ or ‘want’.
Christ is the Lord of All, right? Why can’t he start a little early?
The devil has been given all of the worldly kingdoms apparently because they are his to give to whomever he chooses- either this is true or Jesus does not feel that is where the crux of the test is. Christ is offered power, and that temptation is seriously tricky- I wonder if churches fall into this same view- we seek larger and larger numbers trying to achieve as many people coming through the doors each Sunday as are possible, but what are we engaging them in when they are here? Are they numbers, statistics, or quantities, or are they people, individuals, and identities that are inherently priceless to God. Perhaps our focus on worldly success (more is better) seeps into our congregations and communities where deeper discipleship would be more fruitful? We can even go farther there however, and say that a disciple’s faith is far more important than what they do- producing great depth of faith but no fruit at all!
Serving God ties in with this understanding too- if we commit all our energy to serving God we ignore one another, but if we focus too strongly on one another we ignore God- we must balance these two services in a cruciform lifestyle.
What’s the beef with believing the Scriptures? Don’t the angels of God protect Christ?
Using the Scriptures to tempt- Call on God to prove his faithfulness! What more do we need to see the faithfulness of God made visible than Christ! It is obvious that the angels are at His command in the Passion narrative and that satan knows that Christ has this power over heaven, yet not only does Christ ignore this, he willfully submits to the outcomes of his ministry, the crucifixion… listening to a priest say that “God was preparing someone for heaven with a earthly affliction” “Enough faith will make you well”- when we are being made new and have been made well from the eternal sting that is sin and death… Faith has made us well. But that does not stop suffering in the world nor does it omit the faithful from suffering as well.
What more do we need? Do we need miracles to prove the existence of God? When we start looking for ways to prove God, we are not living for God- why do we need proof that God exists? Scientific method? God created the Scientific Method!
The challenge of ethics and our temptation to violate them
The text at hand
It was interesting to pick this particular week in the lectionary. I have no particular sermon dates coming up at my home church or at seminary. I've already preached my sermon for the year up here, having the chance the Monday before Thanksgiving where I compared a Mexican saint by the name of Miguel Agustin Pro to James Bond in a hopefully humorous and meaningful way.
Having the chance to pick-a-text as it were, I sought out a Sunday in the not-too-distant future and settled on February 21st. The text in particular for preaching is following along with some initial thoughts:
Luke 4:1-13
Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he endured temptations from the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were completed, he was famished. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'Man does not live by bread alone.'" Then the devil led him up to a high place and showed him in a flash all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, "To you I will grant this whole realm– and the glory that goes along with it, for it has been relinquished to me, and I can give it to anyone I wish. So then, if you will worship me, all this will be yours." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'You are to worship the Lord your God and serve only him.'" Then the devil brought him to Jerusalem, had him stand on the highest point of the temple, and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,' and 'with their hands they will lift you up, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'" Jesus answered him, "It is said, 'You are not to put the Lord your God to the test.'" So when the devil had completed every temptation, he departed from him until a more opportune time.
Initial thoughts:
Temptation- of Christ, of Christians, of humanity, of congregations, endless possibilities
Christ's humanity- appealing to the human side of Christ
Evil- the presence of temptation and sinfulness in the world, human evil
The individual tests- hunger appeals, owning land and selling values, prayers for imprecation
Christ's response to sin- Honoring God, standing strong in the faith, being able to articulate in the face of evil
Physicality and Spirituality- the necessity for an integrated self, needing two types of bread
Filled with the Spirit- the ongoing presence of God in our lives
Some of what I'll do now is to begin my research by going through various translations and look through some of the commentaries and lexicons. Only after that will I actually begin looking at some sites. Once I do begin that portion, I'll be looking at:
Crossmarks (http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/luke4x1.htm)
textweek.com
desperatepreacher.com/bodyii
From there we'll jump into further stuff if necessary.
Having the chance to pick-a-text as it were, I sought out a Sunday in the not-too-distant future and settled on February 21st. The text in particular for preaching is following along with some initial thoughts:
Luke 4:1-13
Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he endured temptations from the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were completed, he was famished. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'Man does not live by bread alone.'" Then the devil led him up to a high place and showed him in a flash all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, "To you I will grant this whole realm– and the glory that goes along with it, for it has been relinquished to me, and I can give it to anyone I wish. So then, if you will worship me, all this will be yours." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'You are to worship the Lord your God and serve only him.'" Then the devil brought him to Jerusalem, had him stand on the highest point of the temple, and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,' and 'with their hands they will lift you up, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'" Jesus answered him, "It is said, 'You are not to put the Lord your God to the test.'" So when the devil had completed every temptation, he departed from him until a more opportune time.
Initial thoughts:
Temptation- of Christ, of Christians, of humanity, of congregations, endless possibilities
Christ's humanity- appealing to the human side of Christ
Evil- the presence of temptation and sinfulness in the world, human evil
The individual tests- hunger appeals, owning land and selling values, prayers for imprecation
Christ's response to sin- Honoring God, standing strong in the faith, being able to articulate in the face of evil
Physicality and Spirituality- the necessity for an integrated self, needing two types of bread
Filled with the Spirit- the ongoing presence of God in our lives
Some of what I'll do now is to begin my research by going through various translations and look through some of the commentaries and lexicons. Only after that will I actually begin looking at some sites. Once I do begin that portion, I'll be looking at:
Crossmarks (http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/luke4x1.htm)
textweek.com
desperatepreacher.com/bodyii
From there we'll jump into further stuff if necessary.
The Christian video game, the 'real' Bible, and a hijacked imagination
What the heck is this title talking about, right? Well, three specific points in our class book, Flickering Pixels by Shane Hipps. I introduced the book in my writings yesterday, but today we have the chance to talk about some of the more interesting points in the book so far. And they are:
The Christian Video Game- reaching out to a new generation
A short reflection on the writers of the Bible
Agreeing with the statement- the movie is never as good as the book
The first point: The Christian video game
This comes from the beginning of Chapter 2, The Magic Eye. I would have liked to have written on the actual magic eye pictures he placed throughout the chapter, but try as I might staring at those pictures over Christmas break much to my fiancee's chagrin I'm sure, I could not unlock the picture. So I was forced to glance a couple of pages ahead and secret the answer from Hipps himself... I still can't see the planet Saturn or the words in either picture.
In any case, what this topic is referring to is a person that Hipps was talking to who said he had developed a Christian-themed video game quoting, "We're just trying to give a new generation a chance to connect with Jesus" and, "It's not that the truth and content change, but the mediums have to change" (24).
Now what immediately flashed through my head was the Noah's Ark video game from way back in the day of the Nintendo and Super Nintendo. If I remember right, one was a side-scroller and one was a 3-d Doom-esque version and both were very disturbing. It consisted of smacking animals, usually with a staff or slingshot to capture them before the rains started. While my memory may be completely off, both of these memories and the idea of a Christian video game run headlong into the message of, "the medium is the message".
Don't get me wrong, I love video games and I attribute my love of reading and my fundamental math abilities directly to the video games I enjoyed playing growing up. But in this day and age, the games I have played for years are fading out, giving way to games that baffle the imagination and tantalize the senses. While I felt those feelings for 8- and 16-bit graphics, youth and adults now are seeing what resemble actual humans and what looks to be real environments. It's amazing.
But to place the term 'Christian' alongside a video game to me is the wrong first step. What kind of Christian? What is the theology behind the game, what is the salvation theory? What practice will this engender in the person playing, will it be a loving response to the grace of God in our lives? Or will the person playing move through a virtual environment practicing conversations and conversion combos (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, b, a, select, start!) to win the game?
Video games can be wonderful releases for those people who love to play a sport and cannot. Turn the game on, and bam, you are Alex the Great 8 soaring down the ice to score on Ryan Miller in the first period (Go Caps!). But video games themselves project a message of virtuality, isolation, and pseudo-community. I quote from my advisor's recent blog, "embodied community beats the pants off of virtual community--every time, every day". Thanks Dr. Largen, I completely agree, and that is where video games and Christianity (as I see it) usually part ways. To be a Christian is to seek out community and to engage humanity in love and respect as Children of God! Sitting at home playing a game by yourself may be a great release but there are many people in this world desperate for a companionship that is based on respect, trust, admiration, and love.
Next time you feel like picking up a video game, think about going to someone's house and playing with them- it can be a wonderful community builder to team up against the 'computer' sometimes. Or you can engage in what I did- my most recent online game, World of Warcraft, was a fantastic outreach tool for meeting people where they were (virtually) and discussing issues of theology, 'christendom', the 'problems with the church', and the broken world in general. These avenues can also be channels not only for relaxation but for outreach and evangelizing in a different type of community.
A *Short* reflection on the Bible
I say this because my first part is really long and I always try to advise against walls of text! The reason I write this section is because as I was browsing Amazon.com over the break looking for cool books I came across a book written by Bart D. Ehrman. Now, I was given one of his books many moons ago for Christmas, Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why... but I was struck by the other books that he has written and sought them out as well. They almost all have catchy titles, and end with something usually along the lines of "(and why we don't know about them)". I find it fascinating that one of his books talks about the contradictions in the Bible and in particular mentions how the four gospels in the Bible cannot even agree on simple ideas about on which actual day the crucifixion happened or what Jesus actually did, etc. I turn to Hipps:
"The fact that our subjective experience colors the way we read Scripture isn't a surprise to God. That's part of the beauty and mystery of Scripture. The stories of the Bible are remarkably adept at speaking to people in wildly divergent contexts. We must remember that the Bible is not merely--or even primarily--a collection of objective propositions. It is a grand story told through hundreds of different perspectives and diverse social settings. The message is multilayered, textured, expansive, and complex.
The mere fact that the Bible includes four versions of the life of Jesus shows us that the subjective experience of each author offers something unique and important to our faith. This subjectivity helps paint a more colorful picture."
Hipps stands directly against Ehrman- As a Lutheran Christian, I stand along the road with Hipps: our Scripture is a reflection of God's ongoing relationship with humanity, and humanity's endeavor to interpret that relationship as it happens. There are authors of the Bible, because the Bible is made up of so many different documents, genres, and periods of history. God is the author of life itself and has revealed Godself through Scripture and the Word made flesh who dwelt among us and God's Spirit who lives in us now. Contradictions and why 'they' hide it from 'we' aside, I see little meaning in Ehrman's books other than trying to sell copies by engendering some sort of hidden quality to the Scriptures that is not there. What is there is the authorship spanning the relationship of God with God's people, interpreted by different people in different contexts in different times.
The final part: the movie is never as good as the book
It's just completely true, isn't it? I have yet to encounter a movie that was as good as the book, let alone a movie that surpassed the book. Modern CGI stuff aside, there is no match for the human capacity of imagination. Granted, there are parts of movies that I find much cooler than books (Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for example... both of the movies created off of the book have unique and interesting parts that are not in the book! Everyone do the Oompah Loompah dance!) but books stimulate the imagination in a way that movies cannot. Hipps is correct in my opinion, when he compares a statement "the boy is sad" to a picture of a hungry child in a third-world setting:
"when you read the statement "The boy is sad," your mind could create any image it desired for that statement. The number of possibilities was only limited by the amount of time spent thinking about them. But when you saw the picture of the sad boy, the image fed you every last detail. There was only one specific possibility, so your imagination was no longer required. These differences make it impossible for the finite choices of a movie director to match the infinite choices of a book's readers."
I think this is a little heavy-handed- the picture still gave me many questions- why is the boy hungry, is the boy alone, what is the background of the picture, why is the boy crying? But the image certainly limited the total number of possibilities.
It is here where I like to flip Hipps a bit... an image can portray a select few possibilities in a given imaginative situation. The situation then, gives rise to a nearly infinite number of options for images! The statement "the boy is sad" might one day be an entire art studio full of pictures, poems, interpretations, songs, etc. all around the understanding of children, poverty, violence, grief or so many other options. Images can be truly inspiring in their own right, calling us to use our imaginations in response to viewing the images and creating our own, and I think that Hipps is a little severe when he says "image culture is eroding and undermining imaginative creativity". I don't think it is as limited as he might think. I think it may just be moving from one medium to another- which of course... would change the inherent message.
I wonder what that next message might be for us?
The Christian Video Game- reaching out to a new generation
A short reflection on the writers of the Bible
Agreeing with the statement- the movie is never as good as the book
The first point: The Christian video game
This comes from the beginning of Chapter 2, The Magic Eye. I would have liked to have written on the actual magic eye pictures he placed throughout the chapter, but try as I might staring at those pictures over Christmas break much to my fiancee's chagrin I'm sure, I could not unlock the picture. So I was forced to glance a couple of pages ahead and secret the answer from Hipps himself... I still can't see the planet Saturn or the words in either picture.
In any case, what this topic is referring to is a person that Hipps was talking to who said he had developed a Christian-themed video game quoting, "We're just trying to give a new generation a chance to connect with Jesus" and, "It's not that the truth and content change, but the mediums have to change" (24).
Now what immediately flashed through my head was the Noah's Ark video game from way back in the day of the Nintendo and Super Nintendo. If I remember right, one was a side-scroller and one was a 3-d Doom-esque version and both were very disturbing. It consisted of smacking animals, usually with a staff or slingshot to capture them before the rains started. While my memory may be completely off, both of these memories and the idea of a Christian video game run headlong into the message of, "the medium is the message".
Don't get me wrong, I love video games and I attribute my love of reading and my fundamental math abilities directly to the video games I enjoyed playing growing up. But in this day and age, the games I have played for years are fading out, giving way to games that baffle the imagination and tantalize the senses. While I felt those feelings for 8- and 16-bit graphics, youth and adults now are seeing what resemble actual humans and what looks to be real environments. It's amazing.
But to place the term 'Christian' alongside a video game to me is the wrong first step. What kind of Christian? What is the theology behind the game, what is the salvation theory? What practice will this engender in the person playing, will it be a loving response to the grace of God in our lives? Or will the person playing move through a virtual environment practicing conversations and conversion combos (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, b, a, select, start!) to win the game?
Video games can be wonderful releases for those people who love to play a sport and cannot. Turn the game on, and bam, you are Alex the Great 8 soaring down the ice to score on Ryan Miller in the first period (Go Caps!). But video games themselves project a message of virtuality, isolation, and pseudo-community. I quote from my advisor's recent blog, "embodied community beats the pants off of virtual community--every time, every day". Thanks Dr. Largen, I completely agree, and that is where video games and Christianity (as I see it) usually part ways. To be a Christian is to seek out community and to engage humanity in love and respect as Children of God! Sitting at home playing a game by yourself may be a great release but there are many people in this world desperate for a companionship that is based on respect, trust, admiration, and love.
Next time you feel like picking up a video game, think about going to someone's house and playing with them- it can be a wonderful community builder to team up against the 'computer' sometimes. Or you can engage in what I did- my most recent online game, World of Warcraft, was a fantastic outreach tool for meeting people where they were (virtually) and discussing issues of theology, 'christendom', the 'problems with the church', and the broken world in general. These avenues can also be channels not only for relaxation but for outreach and evangelizing in a different type of community.
A *Short* reflection on the Bible
I say this because my first part is really long and I always try to advise against walls of text! The reason I write this section is because as I was browsing Amazon.com over the break looking for cool books I came across a book written by Bart D. Ehrman. Now, I was given one of his books many moons ago for Christmas, Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why... but I was struck by the other books that he has written and sought them out as well. They almost all have catchy titles, and end with something usually along the lines of "(and why we don't know about them)". I find it fascinating that one of his books talks about the contradictions in the Bible and in particular mentions how the four gospels in the Bible cannot even agree on simple ideas about on which actual day the crucifixion happened or what Jesus actually did, etc. I turn to Hipps:
"The fact that our subjective experience colors the way we read Scripture isn't a surprise to God. That's part of the beauty and mystery of Scripture. The stories of the Bible are remarkably adept at speaking to people in wildly divergent contexts. We must remember that the Bible is not merely--or even primarily--a collection of objective propositions. It is a grand story told through hundreds of different perspectives and diverse social settings. The message is multilayered, textured, expansive, and complex.
The mere fact that the Bible includes four versions of the life of Jesus shows us that the subjective experience of each author offers something unique and important to our faith. This subjectivity helps paint a more colorful picture."
Hipps stands directly against Ehrman- As a Lutheran Christian, I stand along the road with Hipps: our Scripture is a reflection of God's ongoing relationship with humanity, and humanity's endeavor to interpret that relationship as it happens. There are authors of the Bible, because the Bible is made up of so many different documents, genres, and periods of history. God is the author of life itself and has revealed Godself through Scripture and the Word made flesh who dwelt among us and God's Spirit who lives in us now. Contradictions and why 'they' hide it from 'we' aside, I see little meaning in Ehrman's books other than trying to sell copies by engendering some sort of hidden quality to the Scriptures that is not there. What is there is the authorship spanning the relationship of God with God's people, interpreted by different people in different contexts in different times.
The final part: the movie is never as good as the book
It's just completely true, isn't it? I have yet to encounter a movie that was as good as the book, let alone a movie that surpassed the book. Modern CGI stuff aside, there is no match for the human capacity of imagination. Granted, there are parts of movies that I find much cooler than books (Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for example... both of the movies created off of the book have unique and interesting parts that are not in the book! Everyone do the Oompah Loompah dance!) but books stimulate the imagination in a way that movies cannot. Hipps is correct in my opinion, when he compares a statement "the boy is sad" to a picture of a hungry child in a third-world setting:
"when you read the statement "The boy is sad," your mind could create any image it desired for that statement. The number of possibilities was only limited by the amount of time spent thinking about them. But when you saw the picture of the sad boy, the image fed you every last detail. There was only one specific possibility, so your imagination was no longer required. These differences make it impossible for the finite choices of a movie director to match the infinite choices of a book's readers."
I think this is a little heavy-handed- the picture still gave me many questions- why is the boy hungry, is the boy alone, what is the background of the picture, why is the boy crying? But the image certainly limited the total number of possibilities.
It is here where I like to flip Hipps a bit... an image can portray a select few possibilities in a given imaginative situation. The situation then, gives rise to a nearly infinite number of options for images! The statement "the boy is sad" might one day be an entire art studio full of pictures, poems, interpretations, songs, etc. all around the understanding of children, poverty, violence, grief or so many other options. Images can be truly inspiring in their own right, calling us to use our imaginations in response to viewing the images and creating our own, and I think that Hipps is a little severe when he says "image culture is eroding and undermining imaginative creativity". I don't think it is as limited as he might think. I think it may just be moving from one medium to another- which of course... would change the inherent message.
I wonder what that next message might be for us?
Monday, January 4, 2010
MNB- Monday Night Blogging
I figured that the MNF might be over with (yet still there is football on Monday nights, go figure) but the MNB is just starting for us.
I have to say that the more that I am reading this Flickering Pixels book by Shane Hipps, the more I am seeing this author as more of an 'internet is an entity' type of lad (thanks Haley for helping me find a good l-word). The chapters we were assigned to read tonight focus on a few technological marvels and how they changed the way we used technology (the telegraph and camera to be specific) but more and more I am drawn to his prior profession.
Hipps is by former profession a marketing chap. I wonder if his former profession really has had an impact on the way that he views technology.
In class this morning we seemed to agree for the most part that all technology is really a tool that can be used by every culture for its improvement or detriment. Upon reflection I go back to Dennis's image of a hammer: there have been cultures in which the hammer was majorly used, almost exclusively, as an instrument of war (i.e. the warhammer) and there have been cultures in which hammers as bloodletting instruments seldom if ever appear. I wonder if in our own conversation this morning we were content sitting in our context and did not think about the use of technology outside of our specific context.
I go, then, to Tormod's wise interjection about being aware of those people in our congregations for whom the internet technology is beyond their utilization for any number of reasons. With that in mind, my struggle now this night is one of this: when we avail a congregation or preacher to the near limitless amount of information of the internet, how can we blame these people for struggling to use it effectively? As Hipps suggests and I think about it, I think that it is possible that even the most savvy internet users can still struggle with our internet wisdom. Even the most avid internet user probably has not used the internet as most people know it for more than twenty years. In many cultures, apprenticeships regarding production of fabrics, tools, furniture and more require that amount of time before being labeled a master, let alone an artisan. Heck, even the real, honest to God glassblowers achieve only like 30% production numbers. When you involve all the tricks and pitfalls of information, technology, and the global community, how can you expect a congregation or pastor to overcome the wisdom gap so quickly?
I can say this a bit in humor too, as my searching for fruitful religious blogs came up seriously lacking tonight. I've created two websites to date, written many faqs and walkthroughs for online usage, but still struggle in finding accurate ways of sifting through the information available on the internet to find a seemingly simple search.
Fortunately, I turned to our little article book earlier tonight and found a few websites that bring up many different blog locations.
With that being said, I'm off to have myself a frozen Twix bar- so good!
I have to say that the more that I am reading this Flickering Pixels book by Shane Hipps, the more I am seeing this author as more of an 'internet is an entity' type of lad (thanks Haley for helping me find a good l-word). The chapters we were assigned to read tonight focus on a few technological marvels and how they changed the way we used technology (the telegraph and camera to be specific) but more and more I am drawn to his prior profession.
Hipps is by former profession a marketing chap. I wonder if his former profession really has had an impact on the way that he views technology.
In class this morning we seemed to agree for the most part that all technology is really a tool that can be used by every culture for its improvement or detriment. Upon reflection I go back to Dennis's image of a hammer: there have been cultures in which the hammer was majorly used, almost exclusively, as an instrument of war (i.e. the warhammer) and there have been cultures in which hammers as bloodletting instruments seldom if ever appear. I wonder if in our own conversation this morning we were content sitting in our context and did not think about the use of technology outside of our specific context.
I go, then, to Tormod's wise interjection about being aware of those people in our congregations for whom the internet technology is beyond their utilization for any number of reasons. With that in mind, my struggle now this night is one of this: when we avail a congregation or preacher to the near limitless amount of information of the internet, how can we blame these people for struggling to use it effectively? As Hipps suggests and I think about it, I think that it is possible that even the most savvy internet users can still struggle with our internet wisdom. Even the most avid internet user probably has not used the internet as most people know it for more than twenty years. In many cultures, apprenticeships regarding production of fabrics, tools, furniture and more require that amount of time before being labeled a master, let alone an artisan. Heck, even the real, honest to God glassblowers achieve only like 30% production numbers. When you involve all the tricks and pitfalls of information, technology, and the global community, how can you expect a congregation or pastor to overcome the wisdom gap so quickly?
I can say this a bit in humor too, as my searching for fruitful religious blogs came up seriously lacking tonight. I've created two websites to date, written many faqs and walkthroughs for online usage, but still struggle in finding accurate ways of sifting through the information available on the internet to find a seemingly simple search.
Fortunately, I turned to our little article book earlier tonight and found a few websites that bring up many different blog locations.
With that being said, I'm off to have myself a frozen Twix bar- so good!
Technology as a value-neutral enterprise
On internship I was told time and again by my supervisor that "the medium is the message". Little did I know he was actually quoting someone, a very prophetic someone by the name of Marshall McLuhan who wrote that message many years before the Internet was a thought in the tech-savvy generation that spends its time walking through crosswalks and down sidewalks oblivious to the world (and sometimes the cars) around them.
We were to read articles for our initial class for today and while I did not read them until last night, much of the information came in the form of echoes from past discussions I've had with people.
What is value-neutrality? To me, I see it as the objectivity of something being able to be used by anyone or anything for any purpose. For something to be value-neutral it carries with it no inherent qualities or attachments. In our class, we are looking at this issue from is one of technology being used by specific people (we who preach) for a specific purpose (preaching Christ crucified and creation justified by faith through grace).
Looking at it from that angle of preaching, technology is not value-neutral, even though many things in this day and age claim to be, technology included. In psychology, my background, we pride ourselves on being able to distinguish between subjective and objective, but looking back on it from years spent at seminary, I no longer see objective. We are, each of us, our own unique points of view. Sometimes we strive to see other points from different angles to widen our tunnel vision into a panorama, but even then we are still marred by the inability to escape our own preconceptions, emotions, experiences, and predilections of our identities. The saying of 'history is written by the winners' is not entirely true, but the understanding that it portrays is too close for comfort to this idea of objective neutrality.
From my perspective looking at the world, people seem to think that the technology of the internet carries with it, currently, an inherent goodness because it is the latest information, the most recent, and is 'global'. I think technology is a wonderful thing, and I am currently using it to talk about it, but I understand the necessity of technology as a tool, not as an entity, structure, or deity as some would make it out to be. Technology, to me, at its roots is simply the ability for communication with other beings. So yes, even that color-changing octopus that was so popular on the internet all those moons ago is a technological marvel.
But in the use of technology as a means of church involvement or preaching, this inherent goodness can rapidly diminish. Websites can be created by anyone with a little bit of patience and some mouse clicks, and running a website can be just as easy. How can you tell that the website you just viewed for your sermon on Sunday is on that is written by someone who was authentic? How can you know the person who is writing a blog? How is it that you, the reader, know me, the writer? Well, for now, I can safely say that many of the people that will be reading this either have a class with me or know me through various actual, physical contact and relationships that we have built over time through schooling, church, or wherever (like my one facebook acquaintance who is now the author of one of my favorite book series, Mr. Brandon Sanderson). I would even go as far as to say that this inherent goodness that people feel exists with the internet is merely a comfort that people have created with their use of technology since it has become such a necessary part of life.
But what part does technology play in our life in the church?
I believe that the answer to that particular question is this: the internet itself is merely a tool. If we look at technology from a tool standpoint, I believe that the church can begin to look at the internet and its accompanying technologies with a safer lens. Tools that the church use already? Hymn books, musical instruments, and oh, I don't know, electricity itself amongst other things. The internet is a tool that should be looked at and pondered over like any other item that the church may use.
Right now, that is about as firm as I am willing to commit to this point. I have seen pastors who are willing to print out sermons from an online source and not attribute (that portion of the article hit a little hard spot on my heart for actions like that) and I have seen pastors pour over tomes and printed research material and pretty much everything in between.
But just because we have access to the internet or a drop-down screen in the nave does not mean we should use them just because they are cool little gadgets that might draw in a couple people. Any tool should be used with integrity, honesty, thoughtfulness, mindfulness, and care, and the utmost caution should be taken when taking that tool with you into the pulpit to proclaim the Word of God made visible.
Thanks for reading, and since I caught flak for it the first time I put it in my intern site's newsletter, I'll close with it here and still not translate it:
Soli Deo gloria,
Jon
We were to read articles for our initial class for today and while I did not read them until last night, much of the information came in the form of echoes from past discussions I've had with people.
What is value-neutrality? To me, I see it as the objectivity of something being able to be used by anyone or anything for any purpose. For something to be value-neutral it carries with it no inherent qualities or attachments. In our class, we are looking at this issue from is one of technology being used by specific people (we who preach) for a specific purpose (preaching Christ crucified and creation justified by faith through grace).
Looking at it from that angle of preaching, technology is not value-neutral, even though many things in this day and age claim to be, technology included. In psychology, my background, we pride ourselves on being able to distinguish between subjective and objective, but looking back on it from years spent at seminary, I no longer see objective. We are, each of us, our own unique points of view. Sometimes we strive to see other points from different angles to widen our tunnel vision into a panorama, but even then we are still marred by the inability to escape our own preconceptions, emotions, experiences, and predilections of our identities. The saying of 'history is written by the winners' is not entirely true, but the understanding that it portrays is too close for comfort to this idea of objective neutrality.
From my perspective looking at the world, people seem to think that the technology of the internet carries with it, currently, an inherent goodness because it is the latest information, the most recent, and is 'global'. I think technology is a wonderful thing, and I am currently using it to talk about it, but I understand the necessity of technology as a tool, not as an entity, structure, or deity as some would make it out to be. Technology, to me, at its roots is simply the ability for communication with other beings. So yes, even that color-changing octopus that was so popular on the internet all those moons ago is a technological marvel.
But in the use of technology as a means of church involvement or preaching, this inherent goodness can rapidly diminish. Websites can be created by anyone with a little bit of patience and some mouse clicks, and running a website can be just as easy. How can you tell that the website you just viewed for your sermon on Sunday is on that is written by someone who was authentic? How can you know the person who is writing a blog? How is it that you, the reader, know me, the writer? Well, for now, I can safely say that many of the people that will be reading this either have a class with me or know me through various actual, physical contact and relationships that we have built over time through schooling, church, or wherever (like my one facebook acquaintance who is now the author of one of my favorite book series, Mr. Brandon Sanderson). I would even go as far as to say that this inherent goodness that people feel exists with the internet is merely a comfort that people have created with their use of technology since it has become such a necessary part of life.
But what part does technology play in our life in the church?
I believe that the answer to that particular question is this: the internet itself is merely a tool. If we look at technology from a tool standpoint, I believe that the church can begin to look at the internet and its accompanying technologies with a safer lens. Tools that the church use already? Hymn books, musical instruments, and oh, I don't know, electricity itself amongst other things. The internet is a tool that should be looked at and pondered over like any other item that the church may use.
Right now, that is about as firm as I am willing to commit to this point. I have seen pastors who are willing to print out sermons from an online source and not attribute (that portion of the article hit a little hard spot on my heart for actions like that) and I have seen pastors pour over tomes and printed research material and pretty much everything in between.
But just because we have access to the internet or a drop-down screen in the nave does not mean we should use them just because they are cool little gadgets that might draw in a couple people. Any tool should be used with integrity, honesty, thoughtfulness, mindfulness, and care, and the utmost caution should be taken when taking that tool with you into the pulpit to proclaim the Word of God made visible.
Thanks for reading, and since I caught flak for it the first time I put it in my intern site's newsletter, I'll close with it here and still not translate it:
Soli Deo gloria,
Jon
So you can find me!
Okay, I'm back and going to add some things.
Since many of you already should know me I'll just go over some highlights:
First off, why a blog? This blog is for my J-term class: Preaching and the Internet
Are you going to keep up with it? At least until this class is over, can't say beyond that honestly
Who are ya? Senior at LTSG, candidate for ordination, currently preparing for mission development interviews, engaged to the precious and wonderful Karen who if you haven't met you should, I highly recommend it. Brother to Rich, bro-in-law to Lauren, uncle to Landon (also precious and wonderful and someone you should meet), and member of the Body of Christ, Child of the same Heavenly Father, and fellow worker with you in the Kingdom of God.
Since many of you already should know me I'll just go over some highlights:
First off, why a blog? This blog is for my J-term class: Preaching and the Internet
Are you going to keep up with it? At least until this class is over, can't say beyond that honestly
Who are ya? Senior at LTSG, candidate for ordination, currently preparing for mission development interviews, engaged to the precious and wonderful Karen who if you haven't met you should, I highly recommend it. Brother to Rich, bro-in-law to Lauren, uncle to Landon (also precious and wonderful and someone you should meet), and member of the Body of Christ, Child of the same Heavenly Father, and fellow worker with you in the Kingdom of God.
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