The Burr in the Burgh

I am continually dumbfounded by how gullible people are when it comes to anti-Christian hype. Anyone who bothered to do five minutes of research could have debunked that ridiculous "Jesus' Tomb" business from James Cameron recently. But we don't want the facts to interfere with our Christian-bashing.

Not surprisingly, now many of the experts cited in Cameron's silly film are saying they were misconstrued, misquoted, etc. See here.

Certainly, the big media will saturate the airwaves with these corrections just as they did with the original sensational and preposterous claims . . . NOT!

I'm curious. What is your favorite dystopic vision of the future in books, television or film? Why? Here are some that come to mind.

Brave New World
Escape from New York
Buck Rogers
Terminator
1984
Children of Men
Minority Report
Soylent Green

We never stop looking at the cross, but sometime you have to look beyond the cross to see the empty tomb. A couple of years ago, I took a little survey after church one Sunday asking my congregation's opinions about the movie about the Passion of the Christ. And one person wrote this comment: “I was worried about the gore ahead of time, but knowing about the resurrection got me through it.” You know, somehow I think that is what Jesus Himself was probably thinking at the time. I was worried about the gore ahead of time, but knowing about the resurrection got me through it. "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2)." The message of the cross would be unbearable if we didn’t know about the resurrection.

Perhaps my favorite service of the liturgical year is the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday. It is a powerful bridge from the grief of Good Friday to the joy of Easter. The service begins in darkness and gradually transforms into the brilliant light of the resurrection. There are so many things going on in the service that it's not possible for me to do it justice in a blog: the service of light, the readings, the baptisms, the Eucharist. It's all there.

And I must add that our pastor did an especially knock-out job with his sermon. I'm hoping he puts it up soon to our church website.

Our church, together with a couple of neighboring Lutheran congregations, held a Tre Ore ("three hour") service today.

Why a church service three hours long? It is a custom to wait with Jesus from noon til three on Good Friday because it was during those hours that darkness covered the earth while Jesus hung dying.

He was actually on the cross for six hours, beginning at about 9 a.m. His "trial," you see, had taken place over night and in the wee hours of the morning.

But at noon, the sun hid it's face until our Lord expired at about 3 p.m. Even the earth and stars could not bear the horror of Christ's death.

The service at Redeemer was exhausting, to be sure, but quite wonderful. The music, the liturgy, the ceremonies, the texts, everything was amazingly powerful.

If you went outside and conducted a poll asking the man on the street this question: “Why did Jesus die on the cross,” what kinds of responses do you think you’d receive?

I think some people would say He died on the cross because one of His followers betrayed Him and the Jews and Romans conspired together to have Him killed. And that would be true. That is what happened, but why did it happen? Why did He have to die on the cross? It’s not good enough to just say that some people didn’t like Him and they rejected Him and had Him murdered. That is only part of the answer.

I think some other people would say that Jesus died on the cross to show us how much He loves us. And that’s kind of true too. Jesus Himself said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that He lay down His life for His friends.” But again why did He have to die on the cross to show us His love? Couldn’t He have found a more pleasant way to do it? I love my wife and family and I would be willing to die for them, but I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t have to. If all Jesus was trying to do was give them a sentimental expression of His affection, then I think He could have just washed His disciple’s feet and left it at that.

And I am sure that some of the more perceptive respondents would say something like, “Jesus had to die… in order to save us.” And you’d say, “Bingo. Right on the nose.” But then follow up on that and ask, “How does the death of Jesus do that?” and you might get a blank stare.

A related question to the first one (Why did Jesus die on the cross?) would be this question (Who was responsible for the death of Jesus?) And maybe by answering the second question first, we will be answering the first question as well. Who is responsible for the death of Jesus? And why did Jesus die?

Throughout history there have been those who have thought about the Passion of Jesus and become angry at the Jews and blamed the Jews for the death of Jesus. It is a fact that sometimes Christians would chase the Jews out of their villages and burn down their synagogues for being Christ-killers. And since today everyone is so oversensitive about these things, there is now a movement to remove any references to the Jews’ involvement with the death of Jesus for fear of causing another anti-Semitic groundswell. Passion plays that have been performed in Europe and North America for a hundred years are now being revised for the first time to remove any derogatory mention of the Jewish leaders. And when you respond to the cultured despisers that you are just following the text of the Gospels, they tell you that the Gospels themselves are anti-Semitic documents and should be classified as hate speech.

Jesus doesn’t need us to defend Him. He didn’t need His disciples to draw their swords against the temple guards or the Roman soldiers. He could have summoned armies of angels to come to His aid, but He didn’t. And far from asking His followers today to avenge His death by burning synagogues, Jesus prayed for His persecutors saying, “Father forgive them. They know not what they do.” It was Jesus who taught us that we should love our enemies and to pray for our persecutors.

But then there are the people who like to sympathize emotionally with Christ. They weep and wail over Him because He was so innocent. They think “look at poor Jesus,” and “don’t we feel so sorry for Jesus.” They are like the women who followed Christ from Jerusalem crying loudly as He carried His cross. Jesus rebuked them. He told them that they should not weep for Him. They should weep for themselves and their children (Luke 23:28). What did He mean by that? Why should we weep for ourselves and our children when we think about the death of Jesus Christ?

Because God does not want your pity. The better response, I think, is to say, “Look what my selfishness has caused to happen. My impatience, my stinginess, my lust, my greed, my folly.”

So Martin Luther wrote, “You should deeply believe, and never doubt, that in fact you are the one who killed Christ. Your sins did this to Him. Therefore, when you look at the nails being driven through His hands, firmly believe that it is your work. Do you see His crown of thorns? Those thorns are your wicked thoughts.”

To illustrate, let’s say that you are going about your daily business when an evil person comes along and kills an innocent child in front of you. You would feel angry at the murderer and sorrow for the child. But then what if you found out later that it was actually something you did or said that was responsible for the death of that child. How would you feel about that? Now you’re not just sympathetic. Now you feel responsibility. Now you feel remorse. Now it’s personal.

Someone once said that the Good Friday liturgy is like a funeral for Jesus. Perhaps that is true, but like a Christian burial, we do not mourn for the one who is deceased. We don’t mourn for Jesus this day. If we mourn today, we mourn for our sins.

This is almost so outrageous, I'm tempted to think it's a jest. It seems that some British schools are starting to drop certain topics from their history curriculum for fear of offending the Muslim children. Which topics, you ask? Namely the Holocaust and the Crusades.

The reason, according to the Daily Mail, is because some of the things taught in the normal state curriculum contradicts what is taught in the local mosques. Things specifically pertaining to the Holocaust and the Crusades.

Gee, I wonder if the same schools are teaching things that might contradict what is taught in certain local Christian churches. Why would the opinions of Muslims receive such special respect?

After the Holocaust, the world said, "Never Again." Yeah. Right.

This film reminded me of Crash (the one with Matt Dillon) the same sort of journalistic - almost voyeuristic - realism. See also 21 Grams. The same overall theme too: People basically misunderstand each other. It's a good theme.

Films like this sometimes remind me of a Dicken's novel or a Shakespeare play. Mistaken identities. Interconnected stories. Tragic lives resounding from false assumptions, prejudices, and ignorance.

It's a sad movie. Sad in the sense that Macbeth is sad or Hamlet or Othello. So much needless human suffering. What is the source of our pain? Some of it is the result of the malicious intent of a few. Some of it comes from stupidity. And then the foolish things we do to cover our stupidity. A lot of it just results from the broken jumbled mess of life.

Of course, Babel takes a little jab at the U.S. government, making it so quick to see terrorism behind every bush. But other than that, I found the film a moving expression of corrupted humanity.

Behold what I beheld outside my hotel window this morning in Boulder, CO. Not a sign off snow yesterday. I was going around w/o a jacket.

Hell and damnation are real, says Pope Benedict XVI.

It's not easy in this day and age to speak about these subjects. Few take the words of Jesus seriously. He tells us more about hell and damnation that any other figure in the Old or New Testaments.

I've met Christians who may agree that hell exists, just don't think anyone really goes there. No one except baby rapists, in any case. Jesus teaches differently.

A pastor must learn to know his sheep so that he can apply the whole counsel of God appropriately. While the message of atonement through the blood of Jesus is central to all we proclaim, the gospel has no context if we don't announce the threat of hell. If there is no such thing as eternal damnation, then what, precisely, did Jesus save us from? Some people are afraid to die, they fear the judgment. And rightly so. We must ease their fears with the promise of grace. But many others are not afraid of God at all. To them, the cross is just a weird thing pastors talk about.

I get so irritated with myself when I let so many days pass between blog posts. I strongly desire to post every day. But some weeks I just don't have it in me.

Tonight, I don't want to talk about me however. I want to talk about our staff in the Admission Department of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, IN.

This weekend, we have a bunch of guests for one of our two annual visitation weekends. It is exciting to have so many excellent prospective students and their families with us.

I must say that I was particularly impressed with my recruitment staff today and this evening. This is an outstanding group of hardworking and dedicated individuals. They really do go above and beyond the call of duty. I am thankful and the seminary is blessed to have them.

A friend and I went to see 300 this evening at the local theater. What a spectacle! One thing I thought very interesting was how Satanic Xerxes was in the movie.

Certainly, it was not uncommon for ancient near eastern monarchs to attribute divine status to themselves - an act which is inherently Satanic. But I could not help noticing how similar his speeches were to the enticements of Old Nick himself.

"Hey, I don't ask for much. You can keep your lands. You will receive wealth beyond your wildest imaginings. You're a victor. You can be the warlord of all Greece. Only bow to me and all this can be yours."

Not so different from the Tempter's attempted seduction of Jesus, eh? This is the Enemy's tactic. He presents himself as your greatest ally. He's really on your side after all. He only wants what is best for you. "Jesus, you're hungry. Make yourself a sandwich."

For a nice write up on the film 300, see Pr. Petersen's blog here.

So who has seen 300? What are your thoughts? I haven't seen it yet, but am thinking tomorrow night sounds good.

Not surprisingly, the Iranian government doesn't like it. See here. It's astonishing how the official quoted actually thinks Hollyweird bows to the political wishes of our president.

So this morning, I just finished reading Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris. It was a disappointment, I must say. It is definitely the weakest of the books in the Hannibal Lecter series. It seems that Harris was writing on auto-pilot, probably just fulfilling the request of some movie producer. It's formulaic and predictable, not scary in the least. Serious fans of the franchise will want to read it, if only to fill in the blanks, but it is not a must-read for anyone else.

I guess my most serious criticism is that Harris succumbs to the post-modern trend of making the bad guys the real good guys. How can anyone really fault Hannibal for his atrocious deeds when you consider the circumstances? The reader roots for the villain, who is quite understandable after all. This is a far cry from the complicated yet undeniably evil Dr. Lecter of the previous stories.

Are real serial killers made or born? The evidence says both. I regret that Harris's latest installment makes Lecter purely a product of his experiences. He is not just a sociopath. He's a victim.

If you or someone you know is planning to prepare to become a Lutheran pastor, go to my facebook page and request to join my group called, "LCMS Pastors 2 Be." We are currently discussing "contemporary worship" and "contemporary Christian music."

Everyone who runs meetings should look at this book by Patrick Lencioni, Death by Meeting. We all hate meetings. Me too. But the problem is not usually that we have too many meetings, but that our meetings are too disorganized. Hence they last too long and get very little done.

Lencioni recommends have more meetings, not less, but doing them smarter. He suggests four types of meetings. These are my take on what he writes:

• The Daily Check-IN - No more than 5 minutes every morning. No one sits down. Everyone has 60 seconds or less to tell the others what they're doing that day. This is nota time to problem solve. You can ask clarifying questions but no debate.


• The Weekly Tactical - This should be an hour or two. This is the meeting where you plan how to get things done. You solve nuts-and-bolts problems.
  


• The Monthly Strategic - 2 to 3 hours. Let people think big and talk big. Discuss strategy, vision, goals and long-range plans.


• Quarterly Brainstorm - A offsite retreat. Lencioni suggests 2-3 days long. Gives everyone a chance to talk.

I am usually reading at least three books at any given time. I like to have one fiction, one general non-fiction, and one on religion or theology. You can determine which is from which category.

Here's what I'm reading these days:

• Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die - I think the title is very self-explanatory. I think anyone who ever has to communicate ideas (pastor, teacher, advertiser, parent, coach, etc.) should read this book. Made to Stick reminds me a lot of another book I like a lot, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.

• What Dreams May Come- So far, I've enjoyed everything I've read by Richard Matheson. Besides this one, I've read I Am Legend and The Beardless Warriors: A Novel of World War II. Dreams is a fanciful story of a man who dies, goes to "heaven" but misses his wife so much that he is willing to endure the torments of hell to be with her. This book does not convey a Christian understanding of life, death and the afterlife. But he has researched very thoroughly the views of other world religions which inform many of the trendy armchair philosophers of our time. Very romantic. Very interesting. Very full of rubbish.
  

• Faith and Film: A Guidebook for Leaders - Just trying to increase my understanding of film both as an artistic medium and as a conveyer of particular impressions and ideas.
  

What is the difference between faith and wishful thinking? Someone said to me regarding a specific desired outcome to a problem, "let's trust God that this will happen."

Now that would have been good and pious if he'd meant, "I don't know what will happen, but I believe that God is good and He will work it all out for the best." But that is not what this person meant. The rest of his conversation made it clear that he was saying, "I want this to be resolved in this particular way. I will put my faith in God that he will resolve it in this very manner."

It's like someone saying, I have cancer and I am going to trust God to heal me. Or I want this thing so I'm going to pay for it, even though I can't afford it. I will trust God to make my ends meet for me.

Faith can only exist where there has first been a specific promise. If you can show me that God has promised unequivocally to heal you of your malady in this lifetime, then you can trust him for that. Otherwise, it is wishful thinking.

We can't use faith to excuse us from being responsible beings. God does not promise to pay your credit card bills or remove every disease in this lifetime. So many times people simply project their wants and desire on God and make him responsible for them. And then when things don't happen as hoped, they get hurt and upset with God.

Remember this: Faith requires a promise. You cannot get mad at God for not doing things which He has never promised to do.

I've learned that computers do not like to drink coffee. I discovered this interesting fact after spilling coffee all over my laptop yesterday morning. It is now ... how do you say... on the fritz.

After a busy morning filling in for our pastor, I flew out west for a week-long recruitment trip. Arrived in Phoenix Sunday evening. Went to the restaurant attached to the hotel and lo and behold, what did I see? They have rattlesnake on the menu. And let me tell you that rattlesnake does not taste like chicken. That is, unless you think chicken tastes slightly sweet, is slimy and chewy.