Category: Gospel and Culture

Family Pics

Posted on August 5, 2008

Are our kids cute or what?! Great pics by Jen Cota.

and a smokin hot wife

Corrections and Reflections on The Dark Knight

Posted on August 3, 2008

In his review of the Dark Knight, Marc Savlov of Austin’s Chronicle writes: “There’s something intangible missing from this Dark Knight. For all its thrum and thunder, Nolan’s film feels chilly and ill at ease.” Today I explored that “intangible missing” in a sermon that considered the perception of truth in the Dark Knight. What is missing? Could it be the Truth? Well, not just truth, because there is plenty of factual and moral truths in the film, but perhaps the whole truth? In the Dark Knight we get half the truth, half the gospel. We get a sacrifice but no Savior, a substitute outcast but no Redeemer. You see, we need more than a dark knight to change the city, more than a sympathetic hero, more than a guardian. We need a Redeemer, a hero who not only bears our burden, but who also changes us, who alters our desires. The hero spouse or hero career can not do that. Even Batman cannot change our hearts. But there is a hero who redeems, who takes our depravity to the grave, while also lifting our infinite desires for acceptance, meaning, goodness, and truth into heaven itself, where alone can be met by an infinite God. Some have critiqued my conclusions as “Christian ghetto.” Interacting with my post, one critic writes:

“Anyway, he goes on and it turns into one of those things where we pit some quote-unquote postmodern hero against the quote-unquote true hero and we all end up cheering for Jesus and feeling sorry for the other guy who could only be all he could be. This is that Christian ghetto we whine about..”

But I beg to differ. What would he have us all do? Stand up and cheer for Batman while feeling sorry for Jesus? As much as we can learn from the Batman, and we can learn a lot, in the end Batman only offers us half-truths. I have written about those here. Yet, in the end, Batman purports that deserve “more than the truth,” willing to ground his actions in fiction, in a Harvey Dent who has no dark-side. What if Gotham found out about the cover-up? Wouldn’t that do greater harm than good? We must affirm the virtues and insights of The Dark Knight, but not at the expense of the truth. If we do, we will find ourselves in a secular ghetto, with very little hope.

Check out this review from First Things.

Preparing for Sunday on Saturday

Posted on August 2, 2008

In preparing for sabbath, what Christians designate as Sunday, I have often struggled to know how to best “prepare” on Saturday night. I have often discovered that late night and/or intense entertainment late Saturday results in disconnected worship and community on Sunday mornings. And, as a pastor, prayer is an important part of pre-Sunday preparation. There’s certainly no one-size-fits-all here, but the principle of sabbath preparation is vastly overlooked by most Christians. We would do well to explore the principle, to reflect on our practice, and to consider our subsequent Sunday posture. Is it one of anticipation, of communing, learning, repenting, delighting, growing, loving, and serving? Or is it just one more event on the calendar with a twist of the spiritual?

Laura Winner reflects on similar things:

Of course, “Sabbath” observance begins on Friday evening. So does, or should, “Sunday” celebration begin on Saturday evening? I remember a family from my childhood who had been missionaries in Sudan who followed this practice. Even as a kid I can recall being both puzzled by and attracted to such a rhythm to life (though I didn’t call it that then, of course!). HT:JT

What would sabbath be like if we started with just a ten minute rhythm? A few minutes of prayer and Scripture meditation before we went to sleep? What if we aimed those reflections on considering Jesus, talking to him, loving him? Would Sundays look any different?