6 Favorite Documentaries

The King of Kong and Man on a Wire have reminded me how much I love documentaries! Here are six others that I think are worth watching:

1. The Cruise (best movie about New York City, especially as it unwittingly relates to 9/11, not unlike the Wiz in that regard)

2. Sherman's March (the world of 1970s bachelorhood comes to the South)

3. American Movie (what King of Kong is to video games, this film is to homemade zombie movies from the mid-west)

4. Unzipped (The Cruise of fashion, this movies says all that nobody can think of to say about the forgettable 90s)

5. Burden of Dreams (you won't won't believe what goes into the making of some movies! Kinski is beyond beyond)

6. Jimmy Carter: Man from Plains (dripping with Gospel, Demme makes a great doc! note: this one never makes documentary "lists" because its material is so sensitive)

The Gym

Hi everyone! My name is Javier, I'm a student in Washington DC, and this is my first contribution to Mbird. I am really excited to be able to add my 2 cents, as I have been reading for a while now, and this site has been such a blessing to me. I am so thankful for the grace this blog (not to mention Judgment And Love and Who Will Deliver Us?) champions and how it always points me to the Cross.

Anyways, for my first post I wanted to delve into one of the great symbols of pure Law (at least for me): the Gym. I was recently reading a NY Times article: Personal Best: Fitness Isn't An Overnight Sensation and it struck close to home.

When I was a child I was really into sports. Although I grew up all over the world, I always loved soccer and basketball. I watched sports religiously and could name all the stats and players, etc. Gradually, the exposure (somehow) led me to believe that I would one day join the NBA. I played on the local middle school team so - why not right!? Eventually though, as my confidence in telling people I was going to play in the NBA like Jordan grew, certain people got a little worried and tried to knock some realism into me. They would ask, "Do you know how many people want to get into the NBA?" I have never been good at math, but I got the picture, and with crushed dreams, I went back to just watching and admiring.

However, when I got to college, a new wave of athletic hopes came floating in. This time, I wanted to get buff. So, I made a little regiment and began pumping iron my Freshman year. Do not be deceived though, I came back aching all the time, and no matter how many protein shakes I drank, the "buffnesss" never really came. After about five months of trying and trying, I gave up. It just didn't seem to be worth all the effort.

Now that I look back and think about it, I realize that I have grown scared of the gym and sports in general. Whenever I would walk in the gym, I would see people lifting weights who were like three times bigger than me (taller and buffer) and made me want to run away screaming. To me, it was a whole world - with the treadmills, and the ellipticals, and the free weights, etc. And there was a whole code of behavior - to stretch before and after, look in the mirror periodically to revel in the progress, to make it look easy. Plus, I always got the feeling everyone was looking at me. The message was simple: be perfect - have a perfect body and be chiseled like Michelangelo's David! It was and is pure Law to me - telling me what to do, even though I know I can't do it!

It's no mystery now that I never followed through with that program. I even went to the gym the other day to take another stab at it; of course, I chose to go with an ex-marine - I have not been able to extend my arm fully ever since and I think my abs are internally bleeding! I always joke that the only reason I can run on a treadmill is that my motivation is right in front of me - if I stop, I'll break my face! Nowadays, when I do go to the gym, it's because I am listening to a song by Sufjan Stevens or a sermon that tells me that the cross is our salvation. Hallelujah because Christ has delivered us from this body of death!

I leave you with one of Luther's prayers (from a book called Luther's Prayers edited by Herbert F. Brokering) entitled "For Help to Overcome Sense of Unworthiness":

Lord, it is for your honor and to your service that I now ask. Oh be praised and glorified. I plead, fully aware that you have glory, and that I am a poor, undeserving sinner. I cannot be without your help. You are willing and able to grant it all to all who ask for it. Oh see my need and misery, and help me for your honor's sake. Amen.

Health Assessment 101

Last Sunday at our new church, RJ spoke about suffering from II Corinthians 4, and verses 8-10 stuck out to me:

"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body."

We talked about our propensity to want to "fix" people's suffering/problems and offer words of advice instead of love and empathy, and I was reminded of a little grace in practice I found in one of my nursing textbooks. The chapter was on the patient interview and discussed some things a nurse should try not to do while talking to patients. One of the points was "Giving Unwanted Advice" and said that even if a patient asks "If you were me, what would you do?" we shouldn't answer "If I were you, I'd..." because we are, in fact, not them. And in answering what we would do, we are disabling the patient to understand and come to terms with their condition and make decisions about their lives.

Is that what we are doing when we try to help someone through suffering by offering advice? "Well, how has your prayer life been?" "Have you been reading the Bible?" "You should do x, y, and z..." The truth is, we are hard pressed on every side, and to deny it or offer solutions not only makes people feel like it's their fault (which sometimes it might be) but, I think, it also hinders those who are suffering from experiencing the grace and "life of Jesus" being revealed in them.

Out Now! JAZ's I Played Sports

Just in time for the Superbowl, we are proud to announce the most important space-age disco re-edit release of our time, [DJ] JAZ's I Played Sports! Certainly the most inspired cover art ever... Buy it here in large quantities.






















The full tracklisting (click on the link above for audio samples):

1. Love In The Water
2. The Episcopal Church Welcomes You
3. Glamsanity
4. Weejun Dancer
5. Categorical Imperative
6. Shake Your Wonder Maker
7. Doyers Street Rag
8. Shrimps & Grits
9. Tommy's Theme
10. Whisper
11. Mann Up
12. Give Some Love
13. Chaperone City
14. State Of Hindipendence

[Edit: Check the comments section for a track-by-track commentary by the man himself.]

Go Steelers!

Just thought everyone should know that President Obama will be rooting for the Steelers on Sunday according to MSNBC. (So will Vice Pres. Biden, by the way.) Check out the article here.

"Other than the Bears," Obama said, "the Steelers are probably the team that's closest to my heart."

Couldn't resist:) Go Steelers!

"I Feel the Need...the Need for Speed!"

There's an interesting article in the latest Car and Driver Magazine about the economic slow-down's effect on speeding tickets. Many cities that are feeling the crunch and are experiencing budget problems "look to their Police Departments as a way to cash in." As a result ticketing has gone way up.

In the Detriot area, where C&D has its headquarters, "the number of moving violations issued has increased by at least 50% in 18 communities...since 2002--and 11 of those municipalities have seen ticketing increases of 90% or more." SO watch out you motorists out there especially those of you who live in Michigan. A ticket for driving 5 miles over the speed limit in Dearborn Heights will cost you $90 and give you two points on your license!

The interesting thing about all of this is that many local governments depend on the revenues they get from people speeding. When they need more money they look to the police. This has changed the nature of your local police station from primarily being there to enforce traffic laws in order to protect you to enforcing laws in order to make money. James Tagnanelli, president of the Police Officers Association of Michigan union, says, "A lot of police chiefs will tell you the goal is to have nobody speeding through their community, but heaven forbid if it should actually happen - they'd be out of money."

"Police Chief Michael Reaves of Utica, Michigan, says the role of law enforcement has changed over the years. 'When I first started in this job 30 years ago, police work was never about revenue enhancement, but if you're a chief now, you have to look at whether your department produces revenues,' he says. 'That's just the reality nowadays.'"

I think this is very ironic. The police and the government have built their budgets around the fact that we do not and will not obey the speed laws. They not only expect us to break the law, they need us to break the law. I thought it was interesting that even though the law is intended to curb behavior, it does not, and because of that the intention has changed to now actually count on people breaking it.

Mockingbird At The Movies: All About Eve and The Jungle Book

This week's installment comes from the always insightful John Stamper:

Hello everybody. This is my first Mockingbird At The Movies, and since most of you don’t know anything about me, here are a couple quick facts about the Man Behind The Curtain: I’m 44, I work for the CDC in Atlanta, and I came to Mockingbird by way of Paul Zahl (he was my rector when I lived in Alabama). That’s where I first heard the word of Grace pro mea.

I have been obsessively watching movies since I was a kid. As a matter of full disclosure, a lot (but not all) of the movies I love violate the standards that would be appropriate for most Christian web sites: i.e. they’ve often got sex, drugs, or profanity somewhere in them. That may be a nonissue at Mbird, but I’ll still give everybody a heads-up if I think a movie might really grate on somebody’s eyes or ears.

Final note: movie essays are hard for me because I value so much, for others as much as myself, the experience of hearing a story for the first time without knowing what’s gonna happen next. So my own style is going to be to reveal almost none of the plot – and I apologize in advance if that doesn’t give me much to talk about. :-)

==============

Tonight’s a double feature, which may be a recurring theme for me. Double-features will always be two movies I love which connect in some (possibly very odd) way.

Tonight: All About Eve (1950) and Disney’s The Jungle Book (1967).

OK, to start with, these are like two of the best movies EVER. The connection is George Sanders, who plays the theater critic Addison DeWitt in "All about Eve" and the tiger Shere Khan in "The Jungle Book." Watch the two movies in that order. As the jungle grass parts and you hear Shere Khan’s first line (“A man-cub? How delightful!) you will realize that the tiger IS Addison DeWitt – they sound EXACTLY the same. There are other connections too – e.g. one movie is about an urban jungle and the other a tropical jungle -- but you will make those on your own.

If you are lucky enough to know nothing about "All About Eve", keep it that way. Don’t read even the shortest blurb about it. You’ll have a wonderful experience of learning all about her. There’s a moment toward the end of the movie, a scene with George Sanders, which has GOT to be seen by anyone interested in the power of the Law to completely strip away all pretense, all attempts at negotiating an identity and righteousness on one’s own terms, a holy Law that is absolutely and unsparingly and terrifyingly true.



"The Jungle Book" is fabulous – in my view the best full length animated kids movie ever (and I include its Pixar successors). It’s all about identity, love, trust, and sacrifice; and is both funny and fun. The music is incredible and you get an appearance of a British Invasion Mop-Top band of vultures at the end.

Weakest links for the two movies:
- EVE: The writing and acting for the character of Margo’s boyfriend (the theater director). Fortunately he doesn’t get much screen time and it’s only weak compared to the rest.

- JUNGLE: the sequences with the elephants. Again, fun but not nearly as good as the rest of the movie. Have a good time at the movies.

Two More Amazing Clips from King of Kong

CONFERENCE UPDATE

The full schedule is now online! You can find it over at our new website (PC users - bear with us...). Two quick highlights:

1. We've finalized Friday's breakout sessions. They are "Grace In Addiction", "Grace In Romantic Relationships/ Marriage" and "Grace And The Self".

2. On Saturday morning, we are offering a double-secret optional bonus talk entitled "Grace In Literature: Abreaction In Art". One clue as to the speaker: his name rhymes with "wall ball"...

So spread the word and pre-register now!

Mockingbird: Bringing You the Gospel (pt. 6)

Davos, take two.

At the risk of being a serial poster on this issue, I wanted to share the following article about Davos from today's NYT. I feel that this event, given the current economic conditions, epitomizes the tension between the theologian of glory and the theologian of the cross:

Davos is usually about rubbing elbows in tight quarters at standing-room only cocktail parties. But just steps from the main conference center is a very different take on rubbing elbows in tight quarters: A simulation of what it is like live in a refugee camp facing rebel attack has been set up for politicians and business people participating in the World Economic Forum. Richard Branson is leading a delegation of executives and NGO leaders in the simulation on Friday.

I participated in the simulation on Wednesday and it was quite an eye-opener. In three different rooms, tents were set up, with chained-link fences and barbed wire surrounding the area to simulate a refugee camp. All participants were assigned roles; I was a 40-year-old farmer with a bad left leg and tuberculosis. Actors dressed in army fatigues played the rebels. The lights would go out, and in the pitch black the rebels would push people around and point guns and lights in their faces. I know it may sound hokey, but it wasn’t.

This is how Global Risk Forum Davos, the co-host of the simulation describes it: “For a moment in time, participants will be thrust into another environment, stepping ‘into the shoes’ of refugees who face a rebel attack, a ‘mine field,’ border corruption, language incapacity, black marketeering and refugee camp survival. Following the event, a debrief will invite participants to discuss the refugee situation and explore ways to assist, should they so wish.”

Nonetheless, the organizers are taking flak for it. William Easterly of Aid Watch asked:

“Can Davos man empathize with refugees when he or she is not in danger and is going back to a luxury banquet and hotel room afterwards? Isn’t this just a tad different from the life of an actual refugee, at risk of all too real rape, murder, hunger, and disease?

“Did the words ‘insensitive,’ ‘dehumanizing,’ or ‘disrespectful’ (not to mention ‘ludicrous’) ever come up in discussing the plans for ‘Refugee Run’?”

I do not pretend to know what the solution is for the refugee problem (current UN estimates are at 245 million people worldwide). It do know that it is virtually impossible for me as a white, 30-something, educated male, to truly understand life from the perspective of a mother who sifts through a garbage dump every day in order to feed her 4 hungry children. I haven't a clue what it might be like to feel the hot breath of a machine gun toting guerrilla against my face as the rest of his squad undresses my wife and daughter in front of me...after all, I'm just typing up a blog post, sipping espresso. No simulation could ever make these horrors a reality, especially if I am a CEO who knows that he'll be heading back to a posh hotel suite in 40 minutes when the exercise is over.

The same problem applies to the incarnation...who among us can identify with Jesus' disassociation with glory and identification with the mundane? He was the divine refugee, living in Egypt, wandering through Palestine, touching lepers, making friends with prostitutes. There is something much different about Jesus' solution to the world's sadness...it was not a simulation, it was an identification to the point that he became the incarnation of our sin upon the cross...our garbage dump, our hot breath...our salvation.

Continuing With Something Different...

If you're like me, you've found many meaningful relationships on Facebook. Thanks to Facebook I have become a social butterfly with close to 500 friends! Here's a funny clip of how Facebook would work in the real world [warning: It's a tad off-color]:

And Now For Something Completely Different: The War Within

The Baptismal scene at the end is classic. . .

January Playlist

Mostly new stuff this time. The Scott Weiland hymn is not be believed...

1. Closer - Kings of Leon
2. The '59 Sound - The Gaslight Anthem
3. Strange Overtones - David Byrne and Brian Eno
4. Til The End Of Time - Devotchka
5. Family Tree - TV on the Radio
6. Cold Wind - Arcade Fire
7. People Got A Lotta Nerve - Neko Case
8. Idly Drifting Down The Ebb - Sam Bush
9. I Have Forgiven Jesus - Morrissey
10. Half A Person - The Welcome Wagon
11. Singer Songwriter - Okkervil River
12. Lord, I'm Discouraged - The Hold Steady
13. Joseph, Better You Than Me - The Killers
14. Geraldine - Glasvegas
15. Sax Rohmer #1 - The Mountain Goats
16. My Day Is Coming - Rivers Cuomo
17. Say Goodbye Good - The Promise Ring
18. Be Not Afraid - Scott Weiland

Should there be a Davos?

Unless you watch a lot of Bloomberg or CNBC, you may not have heard of Davos. Time Magazine summarizes:

The small alpine ski town of Davos has just entered its peak season. Every January, a lively mélange of global business magnates, world leaders, entrepreneurs, activists, journalists and intellectuals descend upon the Swiss village to ski, socialize and participate in the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. The five-day gathering, organized by the Geneva-based nonprofit, is intended to provide a platform to debate pressing global challenges. Not surprisingly, the recent economic meltdown is at the forefront of the agenda for this year's meeting — aptly titled "Shaping the Post-Crisis World" — which kicked off on January 28th and is already considered to be the most important (and somber) Davos conference yet.

Essentially, Davos is a forum for power networking in an environment of excess. Given the current financial climate, I feel it is the economic equivalent of Nero fiddling while Rome burned. It just looks terribly out of place as businesses slash jobs by the thousands and report ever-dismal earnings. In short, Davos is a theology of glory in the midst of a theology of the cross, and a powerful commentary on just why some of us find this strain of theology to be inappropriate in the church given what we know about the human condition and the design of salvation.

Man on Wire

I watched this last night and I have never been so amazed at a story like this. Amazed in the sense of wonder and disbelief. This guy is just on a different plane than everyone else. Tightrope walking between the tops of the Twin Towers in NYC? It made me think of three things:

1) Insanity. Of course. Yet, is was the insanity to do something beautiful and surreal. Insanity to take us away from the normal drudgery of our lives. A wonderful thumb in the pie, if you will.

2) Kierkegaard. Obviously, this man had been captured by something transcendental. Something irresistible that made him go beyond the "ethical" mode that the majority of us find ourselves in. It made me quite envious of that state with the full understanding that an undertaking of that magnitude would never fall to me.

3) Art. I have been given of late a monumental influx of appreciation for art. Literature, especially. But visual art and music is right up there. What this man did was art. Graceful art. Notice the smile and salute he gave 110 stories above the ground. It was literally the most wonderful performance I have ever seen.

It was the sublime act of a dead man offering horrific martyrdom to something transcendent. Crazy transcendent but transcendent nonetheless.

John Updike (1932-2009)

In memory of the great author, who died today, here are his Seven Stanzas at Easter, written in 1960:

Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled
eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His flesh: ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that–pierced–died, withered, paused, and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.

Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping, transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the
faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mâché,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow
grinding of time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.

And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair,
opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.

Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are
embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.

The Ongoing Battle Against Smoking

There was an interesting article in the NY Times today about the ongoing battle against smoking in America. Belmont, California, a town south of San Francisco, recently put a new law into effect that bans "smoking anywhere in the city of about 25,000 except in detached homes and yards, streets and some sidewalks, and designated smoking areas outside." So, if you live in a condo or an apartment building you are out of luck. You can't smoke in your own home.

Well Edith Frederickson, a two pack-a-day smoker for the last 50 years, was less than pleased with such a law. "'I'm absolutely outraged,' said Ms. Frederickson, 72, pulling on a Winston as she sat on a concrete slab outside her single-room apartment. 'They're telling you how to live and what to do, and they're doing it right here in America.'"

So what are the effects of the law? Mrs. Frederickson is one of those that "still smoke secretly" in their apartments. She said "she is looking to move out of Belmont if she can find something cheap enough. Until then, however, she seems defiant, despite feeling like a criminal in Belmont.

"'And I'm going to keep being a criminal, let me tell you that,' she said."

Integrating Our Past

The Partnership for a Drug Free America is currently running advertisements in Time Magazine entitled, “How to talk to your kids about drugs if you did drugs.” From the title alone one can sense the fear of being exposed. The advertisement lists ten helpful things that encourage reticent parents to be age-appropriately open with their children. It ends with “good luck!”

This addresses a common human tendency to want to present ourselves as better than we are. We have a ‘fatal attraction’ to value what others think about us above all else. It really cuts to the bone when it’s someone we deeply care about—a child, a younger sibling, a spouse. In another example we see this playing out right now on the reality TV show, “Momma’s Boys.” One of the guys is falling for a former Penthouse cover-girl. She is terrified that he will reject her when he inevitably finds out.

Boys in the basement. Skeletons in the closet. Secret lives. Dark sides. No matter how old we are or how “well adjusted” there are inevitably areas of hidden, unconscious pain that life has a way of bringing to light. The only effective way of dealing with our past is to integrate it, as the Partnership of Drug Free America suggests. The ad offers helpful conversation starters and a well meaning “good luck” at the end. All well and good, but I am thankful that Christianity addresses this very fear head-on.

I am instantly reminded of the Samaritan woman at the well who met Jesus while drawing water:
Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband." (John 4:16-18)
Jesus goes straight to her secret life in order to expose her thirst and need for the forgiveness he offered. A humbling experience for sure, but also necessary to know that God loves her, especially there. Liberated, she evangelizes her town: "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” She was not afraid anymore. Jesus’ interaction with her allowed her to accept herself as she was and also completely validated her personhood. His death and resurrection for all humanity stands across time to call and forgive those of us like her.

I see a correlation in the advertisement and the message of the cross in our lives. In Who Will Deliver Us, Paul Zahl describes this ministry of atonement: “For most of us, Christian growth will involve an enduring, painful missionary advance of the good news into areas of our lives that are still as bound as they were before. Bringing release to the captives is the ministry from us all to us all” (80). The very things of which we are most afraid of being known are just the areas where God works to make his love known.

Slumdog Millionaire and American Self-Reliance

In last Saturday's New York Times, Anand Giridharadas wrote an interesting article about Slumdog Millionaire and the American Dream of self-reliance, the full text of which can be found here:

"...the film’s freshness lies not just in how the West sees India. It lies, too, in how Indians see themselves. It portrays a changing India, with great realism, as something India long resisted being: a land of self-makers, where a scruffy son of the slums can, solely of his own effort, hoist himself up, flout his origins, break with fate.

And that may explain the movie’s strange hold over Americans. It channels to them their own Gatsbyesque fantasy of self-invention, and yet places it far enough away as to imply that it is now really someone else’s fantasy. Indeed, after the havoc wreaked on ordinary self-reliant Americans by the impenetrable workings of the markets, after the go-it-alone trading of Bernard L. Madoff, after even President Bush enlisted the government to rescue private markets with a huge bailout, the mythology of the self-reliant self is under siege in America to a degree not seen in a very long time."

The "gospel" of self-reliance has been a great hindrance to the Gospel of God's grace for sinners on these shores. Here's hoping that it isn't exported!

Does Imputation Really Exist?

Last year, here in New York City, Mockingbird hosted a theological discussion group on the topic “Does Sanctification Really Exist?” I have been thinking recently that we should host a follow-up called, “Does Imputation Really Exist?” My answer would be, "No, it does not, at least not in the way we have been saying that it does."

I have had many conversations over the last few years with friends talking about the positive effects of imputation on their lives. Imputation from their friends, teachers, pastors, spouses etc, where they feel like they have been regarded as better than they truly are, and that that regard has made all the difference. But I have come to the conclusion that the imputation they have spoken of, that they have benefited from greatly, is actually not imputation at all.

Let me explain - when I was a sophomore in High School I entered a mountain bike race. I was terrified and it showed. I literally came in last place; the race had ended 3 hours before I even arrived. But still, there at the finish line, all alone, enthusiastically screaming at the top of her lungs was my mother. She was identifying me in that moment as a winner, perhaps the greatest mountain biker to ever live, and boy did I go home feeling like hero. Looking back, I have been tempted to say that she "imputed" victory to me. But this was not imputation. It was encouragement. She was being a mom. Sure, she denied that I was a loser and classified me instead as a winner. But if we call that imputation, in the framework of a theological discussion, we not only compromise our understanding of what imputation really is, and why we need it, but we give my mother power she simply does not have. We begin to think we have something to offer, which we don’t. We miss the point, which is that we are fallen and need Christ’s eternal, imputed holiness. We will never get it on our own. I may become a champion Mountain Biker when I grow up with or with out my mom’s support, but I will never be holy without the imputation of Christ’s righteousness.

So I think discussing of “imputation” outside of the imputed righteousness of Christ can be deadly. After all, outside of Christ, “righteousness” is empty. Some of the greatest and most murderous dictators of our time were given free reign to wipe out millions because of the “imputed righteousness” granted to them by public opinion. My friend after years of “imputing" to her abusive husband was finally sent to the hospital for 3 weeks.

Imputation of any consequence comes from Christ alone.

CBN and The 700 Club

A while back, my mother signed me up for daily bible reading emails from the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). I must confess, I disregarded them from the get-go, assuming that I didn't want to pollute myself with anything from Pat Robertson's large, self-aggrandizing corporation/network. I've always felt that the 700 Club feigns a nitty grittyness but does not actually believe in its audience's capacity of mind...

But that didn't stop me from watching the show with her occasionally. We would sit there at the end of every episode, both of us hoping that one of Pat's prayers would heal some physical ailment we were dealing with, or ease our ever-looming financial problems, or heal a son's/brother's addiction. Even then, and that was half a lifetime ago, I knew deep down that the show was missing the point. No matter how poignant the tales told on 700 Club became - chronicling all manner of drunkards, prostitutes, broke husbands, powerless mothers, other losers and burnouts - and no matter how large Pat Robertson's global crusade grew, all of our energy, patience and godly focus was pointed at the miracle-producing 5 minute closing-prayer. Sadly, it was always a letdown. How convicting this is today.

Anyway, this morning I sheepishly clicked on one of the many links to CBN.com now living in my inbox, thanks to my mother, and found myself reading the following passage from Matthew (Chapter 15). Despite my prejudice, and as much as I might like to hide from what it says, I cannot deny its power:

Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat!"

Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, 'Honor your father and mother' and 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.' But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,' he is not to 'honor his father' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:

"These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.'"

Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand. What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean.' " Then the disciples came to him and asked, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?"

He replied, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit." Peter said, "Explain the parable to us."

"Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them. "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean.' "

Where Have All The Resolutions Gone?

We are entering Week Four of the New Year and the time when people should be giving up or failing at their New Year's resolutions...but did they ever begin? Last year I proclaimed my resolution on this blog in response to the abundance of over-achieving and strong-willed resolutions that surrounded New York's Wall Street Culture. I was anxiously awaiting this year’s pronouncements and goals, but nothing every came. This year, it seems like no one has any resolutions!

--Only one person in my office is brushing his teeth at lunch (and even he isn’t flossing!).

--The gyms are no fuller than they were after Thanksgiving.

--The park is empty (busy on sunny days of course, but on the dark cold nights when only the obsessed marathoners and people motivated by resolutions are out there…all there is is crickets).

I will note that I am slightly comforted by the fact that the Manhattan Half-marathon is at capacity for this weekend, but I will be sure to check the actual number of finishers to see the percentage of actual finishers compared to those who signed up.

Have things gotten so bad in New York that people have even given up having resolutions?

Advice For Theological Students: 10 Steps To A Brilliant Career

I couldn't resist sharing this post (from another blog) with the M'bird community. I feel it rings a little too true as far as my life is concerned.

1. As a theological student, your aim is to accumulate opinions – as many as you can, and as fast as possible. (Exceptional students may acquire all their opinions within the first few weeks; others require an entire semester.) One of the best ways to collect opinions is to choose your theological group (“I shall be progressive,” or “I will be evangelical,” or “I am a Barthian”), then sign up to all the opinions usually associated with that social group. If at first you don’t feel much conviction for these new opinions, just be patient: within twelve months you will be a staunch advocate, and you’ll even be able to help new students acquire the same opinions.

2. At the earliest possible opportunity you should also form an opinion about your favourite theological discipline: that is, you should choose your specialisation. To communicate this choice to others, you should dismiss as trivial or irrelevant all other disciplines: the systematic theologian should teach herself to utter humorous remarks about the worth of “practical” theology, while the New Testament student should learn to hold forth emphatically on the dangers of systematic theology; and so on.

3. As far as possible, you should try to avoid all non-theological interests or pursuits. All your time and energy should be invested in reading important books and discussing important ideas. (Novels in particular should be avoided, as they are a notorious time-waster, and they furnish you with no new opinions.)

4. Every successful theological student must master the proper vocabulary. All theological conversations should be peppered with these termini technici (e.g. “Only a demythologised Barthian ontology can subvert the différance of postmodern theory and re-construe the analogia entis in terms of temporal mediation”). The less comprehensible and more sibylline the sentence uttered, the better. There are some stock-in-trade terms that are de rigueur (e.g. perichoresis, imago Dei, Heilsgeschichte, Bullsgeschichte), but the really outstanding student should find creative ways to deploy a wide range of foreign polysyllabic words. Phrases of Latin, Greek or German derivation are particularly prized. (Those of Hebrew of Syriac extraction should be used more sparingly – they are usually greeted with some puzzlement, or with cries of “Gesundheit!”)

5. Now that you’re a theological student, you will discover that the world is filled with people who don’t share your new opinions. Every conversation should thus be viewed as an opportunity to persuade others of their simple-mindedness and to convert them to a better understanding. If you’re feeling shy about this, you should start by practising on your family and closest friends. And it’s not always necessary to engage in a full-blown discussion; at times a single Latin term or a knowing smirk is all that’s required to demolish another person’s argument.

6. Were you raised in a conservative Christian family? If so, your theological education provides you with the perfect opportunity for rebellion. The benefits of theological rebellion should not be underestimated: rejecting all your parents’ religious opinions allows you both to assert your independence and to imply that your parents are backward and naïve. In this respect, theological education can be every bit as effective as smoking cannabis or moving in with your boyfriend: but without all the bad smells.

7. Every true theologian is an avid collector of books. The day you became a theological student, you entered a race to amass a personal library larger and more impressive than those of your peers. Books should be acquired as quickly and as indiscriminately as possible; second-hand books are even better, since they give the appearance of having been read, which can save you a great deal of time.

8. When you are asked to preach in a parish, you should take the opportunity to display the advantages of theological education. Every good sermon should quote the words of some great theologian (a “great German theologian” is even better). And the phrase “the original Greek says…” should be used sparingly but effectively – perhaps just two or three times in a sermon.

9. The goal of theological education is a good career: preferably an academic career, although in some cases you might have to settle for pastoral ministry (or worse, just a regular job). It’s never too early to get your career on track: every essay, every conversation with a professor, every question you ask in class – these are the opportunities to show the professor how deeply you share their opinions, and how superior your own insights are to those of your classmates. In all circumstances you should revere, admire and emulate your professors. Even if they are neither wise nor virtuous, your goal is to become their perfect reflection, mirroring back to them their own opinions, preferences and prejudices. To show that you are the professor’s true protégé: this is the beginning of wisdom, and the bedrock of any good career.

10. Under no circumstances should you resort to old-fashioned pieties like daily prayer and Bible-reading. There are far too many important things to be thinking about, and far too many important things to be reading. (Church attendance is acceptable, however, since it gives you the opportunity of improving your pastor’s theological education.)

the past...

A few weeks ago my parents moved from the house I grew up in to a smaller apartment in New York. And through the bustle of a family Christmas amid boxes and paper plates I was given several boxes full of my old things to look through and keep/throw away. The boxes were an accumulation of mementos dating back from before I can remember. As I read the yearbook notes and birthday cards and as I looked through all the old pictures I was filled with conflicting emotions as I relived what seemed to be my entire life.

I was specifically struck by how much my past still simmers beneath my consciousness, so easily stirred by a single photograph.

While I had many favorable memories stored in all those boxes, I also had many more memories that I wished could be left behind. Memories that I know I still carry with me and affect how I live today. The specter of past sorrows, embarrassments, and fears still echo today. Or as the Allman Brothers say, "What's done is done, ... and now I'm runnin' from a man with a gun"

It seems we always carry our pasts with us. In psychologist Clotaire Rapaille's book, The Culture Code, he postulates that people make their present decisions strictly based upon their past experiences. He says, "The combination of the experience and its accompanying emotion create something known widely (and coined as such by Konrad Lorenz) as an imprint. Once an imprint occurs, it strongly conditions our thought processes and shapes our future actions. Each imprint helps make us more of who we are. The combination of these imprints defines us."


Said another way, while each new day seems to offer an infinite number of possibilities, even the possibilities themselves are limited by past decisions and experiences. One's career, family, medical history, etc. all influence the number and amount of possibilities available. Even worse, the very decisions that I make now are, according to Rapaille, influenced by a past that is ever-present with me. My genetic make-up, social conditioning, family history all seem to dictate my eventual course of action. Though I wish I could simply "put the past away" (Third Eye Blind), I am never truly free from my past - I am bound by it!

One may (and should) ask: is it possible for one to be rid of their past and live in freedom? It is really possible to begin again? Can the "old man" die and be reborn as a genuine new creation?

This radical freedom from the past is only available by the grace of God through the forgiveness of sin. In faith the past and its folly is taken away as far as the East is from the West. When I'm loved as if that history never happened, then that past is gone. When I'm loved in the midst of the brokenness of the past, then I am given true freedom.

"Jokerman" by Bob Dylan (music video, click here!)

This is the first image from the video. I encourage everyone to take the time to watch it, whether or not you're interested in Dylan. And for those of you who are, this song is one of his real gems from the '80s.

The Gospel and Football

It is not often that ESPN articles bring me close to tears. But this one was an exception. Tony Dungy, coach of the Super Bowl Champion Indianapolis Colts and the reviver of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers franchise, retired this January. The article reflected on what made this coach one of the most respected in the business.

In 1997 the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were off to an unheard of 5-0 season start. Then their kicker started missing easy field goals and even extra points. Their story book season was collapsing and the entire football world (media and fans) were calling for the kicker, Mike Husted, to be benched. His performance was failing, it was costing the team games, so three strikes and get him out or risk ruining the season. It was an obvious no brainer decision. The article continued:

It was obvious to everyone, it seemed, except Dungy. Week after week, he stood there with his arms folded on the sidelines, never showing the slightest emotion when Husted missed a kick. The Bucs lost three games in a row.

Any other coach would have simply brought in another kicker. But Dungy had laid out a philosophy that would end up applying to every player he ever coached and he had to stick to it. He knew something the rest of the world didn't.

While media and fans were breaking down Husted's kicking technique, Dungy knew what was in the kicker's head and heart.

The real story here was Husted's mother, Ann, was dying of cancer up in Virginia...

The next morning, Dungy called and Husted was sure he was being cut. Dungy's words said something else.

"He just said, 'You're a Buccaneer. You're part of our family. You're our kicker,''' Husted said.

Mission accomplished. The next Sunday, the Bucs went up to Indianapolis. Husted made a game-winning field goal that broke his slump. The season was saved and the Bucs went on to make the playoffs for the first time in a generation.

"What he did was relieve the pressure from me,'' Husted said. "A lot of other coaches would have just let me go. I'm forever grateful to Tony for how he handled that. It speaks a lot about the type of individual he is and how he's not going to let outside forces influence what he knows is right.''

"I think the biggest thing was you never wanted to disappoint coach Dungy because of how he treated you,'' Husted said. "I think any player who ever played for him will tell you it was an honor to play for him.”

This is the power of the gospel but foolishness to the world. All conventional wisdom said punish the failure in order to produce results. Tony Dungy (a Christian BTW) instead loved the failure and not only did it produce results, but it helped and comforted a sad and wounded human being.

Happy "Moo" Year!

Chinese New Year is a big deal here in Singapore. It's kind of like Christmas and Thanksgiving rolled up into one big holiday. The festivities and preparations begin months in advance, and they last 15 days after. This upcoming year is the Year of the Ox (the reason for my cheesy title) and it begins on January 25th.

There will be huge family reunions, large dinners, parties and the trimmings that go with any major holiday. However there is a flip side to it. I was having dinner two nights ago with a guy who is involved with a ministry that helps people with mental and psychiatric disorders, and he tells me that the staff in their residential centers have to be extra alert during these seasons because the incidence of attempted suicide goes up significantly in the weeks leading up to major holidays. When I asked him why that may be so, he surmised that some of it may have to do with the stress that comes from facing family, and the judgement that inevitably follows. I think that we all face it in some degree or another. I know I’m going to get more than a few comments about my “expanding ministry” or how “well-rounded” I’ve become in this past year.

And just as I was sinking into despair, I came across this quote from Martin Luther today and realized that this is what we need during such stressful times!

There are laws enough in the world, more than people can keep. The state, fathers and mothers, schoolmasters, and law enforcement persons all exist to rule according to laws. But the Lord Christ says, “I have not come to judge, to bite, to grumble, and to condemn people. The world is too much condemned. Therefore I will not rule people with laws. I have come that through my ministry and my death I may give help to all who are lost and may release and set free those who are overburdened with laws, with judgments, and with condemnation.”

This is a comforting saying in which the Lord Jesus portrays his dear sweet self, and it agrees with John, who says, “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17). Jesus says, “I have come into the world that was condemned already and has enough to do with judges and judgement; but I will take away their judgement, that all who are condemned may be saved.”

Because of our desperate need, we must have such sayings.

-- from Sermon on John 3, WA 47:27

Mockingbird At The Movies: Serenity

[Edit: We're going to try something new here at Mockingbird - a weekly column. Each Friday, in addition to the regular posts, there will be a new installment of "Mockingbird At The Movies". Enjoy!]

The movie "Serenity" was born out of the short-lived, Joss Whedon-created TV show called "Firefly." To get an idea of the setting, think Wild West in space and then, if you can figure out how that could possibly be any good, you will be on the right track.

The power of the show is in the characters that make up the pirate crew of the [Firefly-class] spaceship "Serenity." They are remnants of a rebellion against "The Alliance" (the confederation of civilized and technologically advanced planets toward the center of the galaxy) and long after the war is lost, they continue in their opposition while attempting to survive the harsh life of the outer planets. Their ship is falling apart, they are poor, and every step of the way they are barely holding on.

As the plot unfolds, we discover that the Alliance is seeking to eliminate rebellion and trouble in their civilization by destroying "sin" (yes, that is the actual word they use). Alliance scientists have invented a chemical compound that suppresses the violent urges of human beings. They experiment with this compound on a planet of people who quickly become pleasant, docile, and peaceful. The Alliance has created a Utopian society where all obey the law perfectly, there is no rebellion, and all contribute to the upward spiral of human civilization.

Man has conquered sin... or so they think.

It turns out that, over time, not only do the people taking the compound cease to rebel, they cease to do anything. Everyone lies down and stops working, playing, talking, eating, and drinking, until finally, they stop breathing. That is, everyone but a tiny percentage, who have quite a different reaction. Those few lose their minds and become monsters. These twisted lepers, which the movie calls Reavers, do not lie down to die but instead spend the rest of their existence feeding off any life that they encounter and destroying it utterly. Consuming all in their path, in the most gruesome fashion imaginable.

When Mal (the captain of Serenity) and his crew uncover the truth about the Alliance's failed experiment, they set out to shed light where there is darkness. They succeed, but with terrible losses to their own. The movie concludes with the following conversation as the Serenity is taking off for its next destination. In it, Mal and River (the token Whedon young-girl-with-super-powers) put to words the central theme of all that has been portrayed to this point.

Mal: You know what the first rule of flying is?

River: I do. But I like to hear you say it.

Mal: Love. You can learn all the math in the 'verse, but you take a boat in the air that you don't love and she'll shake you off just as sure as the turn of the worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she ought to fall down, tells you she's hurting before she keels, makes her a home.

[Rain pattering as they take off]

River: Storm's getting worse.

Mal: We'll pass through it soon enough.

[They exit the atmosphere of the planet and the rain stops]

This crew of rebels clearly love one another, and it is this love that makes their story so incredible. Their messy lives are held together by love and it is that love that stands in direct opposition to a "civilization" who seeks to make a perfect world by their own might. They resist because they know no such reality is possible by force or control or technology, but only by love... the one thing that The Alliance lacks.

I believe this is our experience too. We fight so hard to make our lives better and to control the world around us. We convince ourselves with technology and enough determination we can eliminate hunger and pain and suffering, but we can't and our attempts to do so only seem to kill people or turn them into monsters. Love is the only thing that has that power, and the only access we have to that love is the grace of God mediated by Jesus Christ. The story of "Serenity" is our story as a civilization... and the storm is getting worse. But I promise we will pass through it soon enough as we are carried ever upward not by ourselves, but by the love of God.

Favorite New Documentary

It's even better than it looks (best non-fiction villain ever!):

Shelter From the Storm, Bob Dylan

The Gospel and Tourism

While in seminary in England, I took a class on leadership with a professor named Simon Walker. I only signed up because it was expensive and my seminary would pay for it, and, I thought it would help with inter-seminary relations. Even so, me being me, I skipped the first class to go to Stonehenge. My absence was duly noted and prompted Simon Walker to exclaim to those present, “In the many years I have been teaching this class, this is the first time anyone has ever missed the first meeting.” In the end, however, it proved to be the most important and transformative class I would take in seminary. It is, as far as I know, the only leadership class influenced by the Law/Gospel paradigm.

Walker relays a powerful story in the foreword of his book, Subversive Leadership, which illustrates, I believe, what many in the Church have made life out to be.

“About an hour’s drive from Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, is the old Spanish port of Ocho Rios. Ocho Riso gained its name from the mistaken belief that eight rivers flowed in the Caribbean here. The area exhibits one of Jamaica’s most stunning natural features; the six hundred feet high water Dunn’s Fall, cascading down terraces of smooth rock and plunging directly onto the white sands below. If you visit the Falls, you will be invited to join one of the tourist groups to be guided up the falls by an official guide. You will join a group of twenty or so Americans to begin your ascent, back up the falls from the place where the crystal clear river water joins the Caribbean, at the beach.

As you toil slowly up the falls holding hands in a human chain, you will be invited to pause briefly at set times, for photo opportunities as official photographers pop up and video you. You will be told to sit for a few moments in a pool, to be snapped, ‘beaming’, before being moved on for the other nineteen members of your party to be taken through the same routine. You will pass by glorious cascades, tipping off the rocks, glistening plunge pools inviting you to dive in, or shower under; yet you will leave them unexplored. You will be within an arm’s reach of jets of water that would massage your shoulders and neck; yet you will stay stolidly in your line, hands locked, and miss your chance. You will glimpse magnificent view of the peaceful sea through palm fronds, but instead pay attention to the grinning faces and squawking voices of your official cheerleaders, urging you to whoop and holler at your ‘great time’.

And yet, no one will be doing anything different—not a single person will be out of line, enjoying the waterfall in any other way than this. Like obedient children, you will all, literally, tow the line. You will pass by all of these things, still linked, hand in hand, resenting every missed opportunity, every enforced tourist pose, every limitation and restriction enforced on you, as you trudge wearily up the prescribed route until you are led, some on hour later, out of the top of the Falls. You will exit feeling as if, somehow, what should have been the most exhilarating and liberating experience, was an experience of being led where you didn’t want to go, against your will.

And you will probably reflect that it is a tragedy that the Jamaican authorities have imposed these rules that prevent people being free and just enjoying the Falls for themselves. Abut at that point you will discover something quite unexpected; that there are no rules at the Falls….In fact there are no restraints at all to how you may enjoy the experience” (pp 7-8).

My experience in ministry has been just this: the Law is a ‘fun sponge’. It enters the room and sucks all of the fun out of it. People will call you antinomian, but these fellow believers do not know the power of Jesus’ words when he said that he came to ‘give life and life to the fullest’. Their diminished and oppressed lives will stand in stark contrast to the life that has been set free by the message of the Gospel.

“There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do” (Romans 8:1-3a).

On Evangelism

Last week David Browder posted a fascinating video of Penn (of Penn and Teller fame) sharing about a positive experience of being proselytized. I found it tremendously inspiring and very appropriate for the (church) season of Epiphany. Since this season is all about God making himself known to the world as its Savior, one of its major themes is “evangelism,” or sharing the faith with other people. God working through human beings to make himself known to the world. Sadly, the American Evangelical (a broad term, I know) idea of evangelism has become completely different from the picture we are given in the New Testament. It is primarily subjective and rooted in our experience as opposed to Biblical evangelism which is objective and rooted in the history.

Let's face it - the word “evangelism" is taboo in our society. Besides the fact that Jack Chic and his cartoons have made it awkward (see below), I would argue that evangelism is taboo because we make it all about us and what we are doing.



How often have you heard a testimony about how Jesus has made so-and-so a better person? I remember when I was in college I went on a mission trip to San Diego State University, where I was asked to speak to a crowd of antagonistic twenty-somethings who had begun to mob my little church group. I didn’t know what to say so the mission leader said, “Just tell them your personal testimony, they can’t argue with your story. Tell them who you used to be before Jesus, as opposed to who you are now.” So I shared my story with the crowd, how I was a bad person before, but then Jesus came into my life and made me a better person, that since then, things in my life had only gotten better. ("Can't get no worse" Paul McCartney). Much to my surprise, no one bought it. They could and did argue with my story; it was my word against their word. What they heard me saying was that I was better than they were as a result of Jesus, and naturally, they were enraged.

It is true Jesus has come into some of our lives and radically transformed us. Many of us have shared such stories and meant every word. Nevertheless, testimonies such as these do tend to make evangelism overly subjective. Jesus becomes no different than some sort of over-the-counter medication or toothpaste. “I had yellow teeth, but then Jesus came into my life and now my smile sparkles.” As such, they testify more to us than to Jesus, about who we were versus who we are now and how great life will be in the future (a.k.a. A Theology of Glory).

When evangelism falls into the subjective it will always become an awkward thing. It can even call into question the power of the Gospel. For example, what if you are the person reading this blog and you “accepted” Jesus into your heart, but nothing feels different, life still stinks... Does the Gospel still hold true? No, it does not! Subjectivity makes things only as reliable as our experiences and feelings. Hence, evangelism becomes taboo, at odds and in competition with other products and their "results". As I often hear people say, "just because Jesus works for you doesn’t mean that it will work for me", i.e. “Nazareth, what good could come out of Nazareth.” And if evangelism is only about our changed lives, then indeed their critique may be right!

What then does real, biblical evangelism look like? The word "evangelism" has the same Greek root as the word Gospel. It is about something outside of you, namely, the Gospel, the most important message in the world: that Jesus Christ died for our sins and that on the third day God raised him from the dead, so that we might become children of God, no longer subject to his just wrath and condemnation.

Real evangelism points to Jesus and his work. A few examples include: Phillip to Nathaniel in John 1:45, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote.” Or in John 4:29, when instead of talking about what an awesome person she is, the woman at the well proclaims, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” I could go on.




So, like the guy who proselytized Penn, we don’t have to worry about the relative worth of our subjective experiences. Rather we witness to the love of God found only in the cross which promises and proclaims redemption despite our feelings or how we are living, which is always far from the perfection that is demanded in God's Law. In other words, real evangelism should always be objective. What a relief!