Well, having been tagged by my former classmate Drew, its time to step up to the plate.  Of course, connecting it to the most recent Star Wars trilogy might not be the best thing, but its probably better than:

Presbymeme II: The Two Memes?
or
The Dark Presbymeme

Anyway, onto the rules & the questions:

The Rules

• In about 25 words each, answer the following five questions.
• Tag five presbyterian bloggers and send them a note to let them know they were tagged.
• Be sure to link to this original post.
• Leave a comment or send a trackback to this post so others can find you.

The Questions

1) What is your favorite faith-based hymn, song or chorus?

Either “Hold it up to the Light” by David Wilcox or “Grace” by U2.  Of course, I have been pondering the theological significance of “Mysterious Ways” by U2 a lot recently.

2) What was the context, content and/or topic of the last sermon that truly touched, convicted, inspired, challenged, comforted and/or otherwise moved you?

It would probably be a sermon preached by Rob Bell at Mars Hill several months ago that I listed to on their podcast where he talked of ways of understanding the Trinity.  To hear an emergent pastor use the term perichoretic dance was marvelous and challenging too. (Can’t find the link right now for the sermon – bugger)

3) If you could have all Presbyterians read just one of your previous posts, what would it be and why?

I think the most recent one that comes to mind was my comparison between the death of Scrabulous and the ways the church tries to relate to the world.  I think it speaks to the realities of how we are missing the deep need that people have for connection and relationship by instead focusing on the outer appearance instead of the inward work of Christ.

4) What are three PC(USA) flavored blogs you read on a regular basis?

• ChristSeeker
• Presbymergent
• The Crowded Handbasket

5) If the PC(USA) were a movie, what would it be and why?

The first one that came to mind for me is Chocolat.  I think that within the PCUSA there is great beauty, great flavor, great relationships just as there is in Vianne’s chocolate shop.  But we also look sometimes like Reynaud and living legalistic, surfacy-like lives of faith.  We do well on the outside, but when we look deeper, are the roots growing deep in relationship with God, one another, and the world?

Tagging…Um…I’ll just go with one for now (have to go to a meeting shortly – how presbyterian of me)

Doug aka Christ seeker

So, two podcasts to lift up with the highest recommendations.  One for a slightly more specific audience (although I think there’s great stuff in it for all) and one for anyone interested in the current political debates going on around us.

Take me to the Bridge w/ David Wilcox

My wonderful wife got me hooked on David Wilcox’s music several years ago.  He is a “folk” singer / songwriter and has a thread through his music of spiritual themes and some commentary on social topics as well.  He also has some plain fun songs too about kayaking and getting angry while driving.  Anyway, his website talked about an interview he did on this Take Me to the Bridge podcast (which apparently is largely about songwriting, etc – its not on my regular podcast rotation).  Wilcox has a wonderful segment about 25 minutes in that spoke deeply to me about my process of sermon writing.  He talked about how, to write a good song, he needs to enter into a place of emotion and intimacy and not just “process” in putting together the lyrics and the music.  He also talked of how, when he sings a song, he has to  remember that the song is not for him, but for the listener and they will each take what they experience and not necessarily his own intention.  Anyway, it spoke to me about the process of engaging a sermon – that its more than putting together a 15 minute message based on exegesis, etc but instead entering into the Scripture deeply and allowing the Word to sink into the emotional and deep places within and finding a message from those places.  So, I highly recommend it.  The page is linked in the header above and you can find the podcast on itunes as well.

The Unger Report – What to do about Evil?

I Tivo’ed and skimmed through the Obama/McCain thing at Saddleback Church over the weekend.  I watched pieces of it largely out of curiosity of what would be asked and whether anything “new” would come out from either candidate.  Sadly, my personal feeling on that was that it was largely a waste of time and each candidate did their own talking points in their own way and that each candidate, when challenged by a question, largely chose to be evasive in their answer so that nothing could be used against them in the campaign ahead.  My $0.02 review.  Anyway, one of the most inane questions (imho) that Warren asked somethign to the effect of “Does Evil exist?  And if so, how do we confront it?  Ignore, negociate, contain, destroy?”

(Editorial note – I think Obama gave a reasonable response to the question while McCain just gave the Republican talking point about “evil = radical Islam” and the ridiculous “gates of hell” comment about Osama Bin Laden – while Obama gave a much more thoughful, compassionate, and realistic answer – see this youtube link for their specific answers)

Anyway, one of my favorite podcasts is NPR’s The Unger Report and the most recent one is Brian Unger’s perspective on this.  Linked here and above. Also on itunes if you don’t want to stream it.

Enjoy.

This is a magical piece of video from John McCain recently on Fox News.  In talking about the violence between Russia and Georgia, he says, “In the 21st century, nations don’t invade other nations.”  Here’s the video…

Last time I checked, the invasion of Iraq happened during the 21st century.  Last time I checked, John McCain voted for the invasion and has supported it throughout.  Last time I checked, Iraq was a sovereign nation.  Last time I checked, the United States invaded a sovereign nation during the 21st century.

I wonder what McCain’s advisors are saying about this.  I also wonder how long this video will stay up on YouTube…

[RevDarth shakes head]

Ref: Daily Kos

Ok – just a few quick hit topics that have been floating around for me.

Africa’s U2 Album
Ok – this isn’t really new news, but I finally got the album, In the Name of Love: Africa Celebrates U2.  Its been out for nearly a year now, but I finally got around to ordering it (Amazon mp3 store of course).  If you are a U2 fan, this is a must purchase.  I heard a few tracks from it via my friend Jeff and realized that it needed to be added to my U2 collection.  Its a stunning series of covers of U2 songs by African musicians.  They put their own styles, rhythms, and sound to twelve classic U2 songs.  Proceeds from the album go to African aid causes.   The covers of Pride by the Soweto Gospel Choir and Love is Blindness by Waldemar Bastos are especially amazing.

.

“Green” Football
My alma mater (Univ of Colorado) and the surrounding city (Boulder, CO) often get a bad rap for the goofiness that goes along with the People’s Republic of Boulder.  Some of it is deserved (such as the funeral for the tree that was cut down because of a road expansion) and some of it is not (the fact that Boulder is amazing in its forward-thinking about environmental causes and healthy living).  So, its not a surprise that Boulder and the Univ of Colorado are trying something that no other college has attempted.

If you have ever seen a stadium after a major sporting event, you know the insane amount of waste that is produced during that time.  Well, CU is attempting to recycle 90% of the waste that is generated at each CU home game this season.

I will be curious how this turns out.  I think its a great idea, but I wonder about things that simply cannot be recycled – dirty diapers for example.  Of course, who in their right mind would bring a diaper wearing infant or toddler to a major college football game?

Anyway, for a University and a football program that has gotten some really bad press in the last few years, its great to see something like this.  Now, the team needs to just get some big wins this season too!

A Few Final Thoughts on The Dark Knight
After thinking more about the film over the last week, I have decided that a second viewing of TDK is not going to happen.  I haven’t changed any of my thoughts about the performances, story, quality of the moviemaking, etc.  The thing I keep getting stuck on is the violence in the film.  The violence in the film is without purpose in any way.  I know there’s the whole thing that is referred to (rather obliquely) in the film about Batman’s code of not killing anyone and how the Joker keeps trying to make Batman break this code.  But the violence brought out by the Joker is just so over the top that it is sadistic.  I know that was the point of the writers to make the Joker a totally sadistic villian.  But the more that I see the sadistic forms of violence that we humans put upon others in real life (Darfur, Bosnia, shootings, wars, etc) the harder and harder time that I am having witnessing fictional sadistic violence in film.

I think there is a place for darkness in film.  There is a place to explore the darker sides of life – the realities of pain, suffering, trial, etc that are a part of life.  Film enables us to enter into places that need exploration, need light to be revealed, and so forth.  In a movie like Hotel Rwanda, one witnesses horrific, sadistic violence that humans have brought upon other humans.  But the difference is that the film is calling us to something different – it is call to action for those who were outside Rwanda at that time and virtually ignored what was taking place (as we continue to do with so much taking place in the world).  What is The Dark Knight calling us to?

Not so sure.

Well, its been about 48 hours since I finally saw The Dark Knight.  It was just killing me not getting to the theater because of lack of babysitting and crazy schedules and also avoiding spoilers.  I knew that something significant happened at the end of the movie but I was thankful that I was able to avoid what actually took place.

Anyway, I left the movie feeling like I had seen about 4 movies in total in that 2:30 I sat in the theater.  Not that there was an incoherent or inconsistent plot, but they stuffed this film full of different storylines, angles, twists, etc.  I will have to see it a time or two more to just digest it all.

That being said, I honestly am not sure I want to see it again.  It was a technically incredible film, the performances – especially those of Aaron Eckhart and Heath Ledger – are stunning in their portrayals of Harvey Dent and The Joker respectively.  I think both deserve Oscar noms for their performances without a doubt.  The storyline was engaging and I was drawn into the film from the start to the end.

But the movie sinks to a level of darkness and depravity that even I had a hard time with as the film went on.  I am one who has always had a thing for dark movies – ones where the heroes and the villians are not exactly black and white in their goodness and evil, ones where the bad guys win in the end, ones that explore some of the darker areas of life.  That being said, there was something in this film that really made me uncomfortable in the darkness it entered into.  Ledger’s portrayal of The Joker is of a villian who just is insanely evil – no reasons given – just simply evil, cruel, and without humanity in any respect.

There is one scene, though, that I need to lift up without giving any spoilers away – the scene with the prisoners on the boat was pretty incredible.

Anyway, we’ll see what a few more days pondering the movie ends up doing.

Maybe this is because I have probably paid more attention and been more actively involved in this election than any other in my life, but there is something that seems very new in this 2008 presidential election cycle.  Granted, I live in a state where John McCain could be an alien from Mars and stil get 60% of the vote over Barack Obama and therefore have not seen one presidential campaign television ad, but it seems that the television networks and many of the online news sources seem to become the ad servers for the respective campaigns.  For both Obama and McCain, I have seen stories about the ads that their respective campaigns has put out – either on television or online-exlcusively, without having actually seen the ad in person.

A perfect example are the two recent “controversial” ads from McCain’s campaign – the “celebrity” one and the one that compares Obama to the Antichrist (seriously).  In both cases, they were ads that were shown either in a selective market (celebrity) or online (antichrist).  But in both cases, they made the front page of CNN.com and also on Google’s news page.  So, therefore McCain got national play for what should have amounted to local ads.  I have seen similar examples with Obama’s ads.

Not sure that the networks should be in the business of putting these ads out further than they were intended.  Is it really “news” that McCain’s campaign came up with these ads?  Not so sure.

UDPATE: The NY Times also comments on this much more eloquently than me.

UPDATE 2: CNN does the same with Obama’s new ad…

Being both a tech geek and one who is growing in his appreciation of classical works of art, this photoshop contest on Gizmodo was just brilliant.  There are some brilliant works that people did.

Here’s my favorites

By Rich Lim (posted on front page of above link)

By Michael Renehan

Ok – this might be (ok likely is) a bit of a reach, but I saw some parallels between the sad demise of Facebook’s Scrabulous app today and the way that we too often try to do church.

A bit of history
- Scrabulous created on Facebook and quickly becomes one of the most popular (and addicting) facebook apps
- Hasbro, etc follow the path of the RIAA, MPAA, etc and get uber-concerned about their intellectual property and Scrabulous’ popularity on facebook.
- Apparently, Hasbro tried to negotiate with the makers of Scrabulous and make a deal and they were asking for too much $$$.
- Eventually, Hasbro and EA make their own Scrabble app on Facebook and Scrabulous dies on facebook (today).
- New scrabble app doesn’t work on facebook.

Ok – very little of that has to do with the topic of the post, but the history is important. Anyway, what struck me was fact that, from all the reviews, the new Hasbro/EA Scrabble app is way over the top with animations, graphics, and (from what I have read on one review) no way to really chat with your opponent(s). This new app misses the very thing that was so great about the original facebook app.

Scrabulous wasn’t pretty – it was really basic. No fancy animations, no bells and whistles, etc. Just “scrabble”, a chat window, and a great way to connect with other people. So, Hasbro comes along and misses the point entirely as they create something that misses the point – people played Scrabulous to connect with one another. While it was great to play a 102 point word (as was recently done by my friend Will as he played QUARTET to start the game), it was even better to find a way to connect with people in the midst of life around us.

Don’t we do that too much as the church? We see something great taking place somewhere else and we try to copy it in our context, only to miss 1) the reason that it worked in that place and at that time and 2) our creation of this new thing focuses on the wrong things. I get things every day in the mail at the church about the latest church growth thing – whether its a conference that will “Revolutionize my ministry”, “increase our membership”, or “fill the congregation with praying small groups” – and I have to pray and think instead of about the real needs in the context where I am, celebrate the work that is taking place in these other areas, and maybe draw on them to learn and grow, but not to copy.

On a slightly sarcastic note about this too – the new Scrabble app has totally crashed too. It doesn’t even work on the day of all days that it should work – when people would be most likely to hop over to it when Scrabulous is no more. We have that tendency in the church as well.

You might read the above as a slam on the Christian church and its really not. Its a challenge to me about how the church needs to be something new in this day and age. As a pastor of a Reformed Tradition congregation, we hold to the statement that we are a church “once reformed, always reforming according to the Word of God and the call of the Spirit.” It means that we need to be willing to look at the world around us, learn the needs, learn the language of the “world” around us, and respond with ministry, compassion, grace, and hope in ways that people can hear, understand, and respond themselves. It means that we don’t need to copy the Scrabulous-es of the world, but instead in our own contexts, create our own and allow people to connect with one another and connect in vital, real, (and fun) ways.

Last night, I finished my “annual” reading of A Prayer for Owen Meany.  (BTW, I linked to an older copy of it on Amazon because the newer one has a picture of John Irving on the cover and not the armadillo.  What’s up with that?  Anyway…).  I read the book for the first time my junior year in college while working at Barnes and Noble and have read it nearly every year since.  I would guess this is probably about my tenth time reading the book.  I put “annual” in quotes because I didn’t read much over the last three years other than my Doctor of Ministry books and resources.  So, when I got the chance this summer to return to Gravesend and to Owen, Johnny, Hester, and the fated baseball, I took the chance.  I so dearly love the heartbreaking but encouraging story of Owen Meany that I know that sometime next year, I will pick up my copy once again and read those words that open the story…

I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice – not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother’s death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.

I guess I have to say that I owe some of my own faith journey to Owen as well.  (Note I am not going to discuss any significant plot points because I would hate to ruin the magic of the journey of this book for someone who has not read it.  If I am talking to you, pick up the book right now and start reading.  You’ll thank me later).  When I first encounted Owen Meany, I was in college and still working through my understandings of faith.  I was a fairly “new” Christian and extremely conservative in my outlook.  At the time, I was fairly sure that the Four Spiritual Laws were the end-all-be-all of Christian ideology.  But in the midst, I was struggling with questions that I didn’t feel I had a place to ask.  Questions about good and evil, right and wrong, doubt and faith.  It was then that a self-avowed athiest introduced me to Owen Meany.

If you have ever been into a Barnes and Noble, you will likely have seen the rack of “Staff recommendations.”  As I was working on closing the store one night, I noted that one of my coworkers (whose name I cannot remember right now) put this book as his recommendation.  I found it quite unusual because he spoke often of how he didn’t believe in God and that no one could convince him otherwise.  When I asked him why he had a book about “prayer” (I didn’t know the story at the time), he simply said that it was the best novel he had ever read and encouraged me to read it as well.

So, I picked up a copy (with the staff recommendation discount and my employee discount too – woot) and started reading when I got home that night about 1130pm.  I remember reading until well after midnight and was hooked.  In the book, as Irving describes Owen and Johnny – their friendship, their respective faith journeys, and their questions both in the past and in the book’s present time (mid 1980s) I found myself being drawn into their journey.

As Owen struggled with the concept of his being an “instrument of God” and the questions Johnny has about God’s “plan” through it all, I found many of my questions being asked.  There were not answers offered – simply the expression of the questions, especially by a fictional character whose faith seemed to be unshakeable.  There are several parts that I would quote here, but to do so might give away things of the story that I would hate to ruin for someone.

So, whether you are a Christian, an athiest, or one following another spiritual path in your life, I encourage you to read this book.  If you’ve already read it, pick it up again.

Thank you Owen.  See you again next year.

Lifehacker had a great post via Digg a few days ago where they asked their blog commentators to post books that have changed their lives. Their list included the usual suspects – the Bible, Ayn Rand, LOTR – and a few that somewhat surprised me – Richard Dawkins books, Hitchhikers’ Guide. But an interesting series of titles nonetheless. Anyway, it led me to think some about a few of mine. My definition of books that have changed my life start with ones that I have read at least 3 times – a few of the below are ones that have been read many more times than that.

• The Bible
• The Return of the Prodigal Son – Henri Nouwen
• Cost of Discipleship & Life Together – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• Amazing Grace – Kathleen Norris
• Caretakers of our Common House – Carol Lakey Hess
• Working the Angles – Eugene Peterson
• A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
• The Stand – Stephen King

And a few that are not on the multiple-times-read list, but have had a great impact upon me

• Velvet Elvis – Rob Bell
• The Medium and the Light – Marshall McLuhan
• The Night Trilogy – Elie Wiesel