Christmas Curious

Purists find details to debate over the placement of the Christmas celebration and how it compares with the myths of other cultures. I find it interesting that one has to look up these long forgotten cultures to compare them to the still vibrant Christian culture of the 21st century. I don't find it threatening that truth about God and His plan leaked into other cultures. In fact, God would let out His truth in as many ways as possible so we won't miss it.

And what is the truth?

Sin, rebellion, "my way or the highway" had become so pervasive that almost all of human society has been built on it. The problem of rejecting our Creator had reached the point where God had to come down and fix things.

But why come down the way he did? Why not unzip the sky, wave his finger and eliminate all the effects of sin and rebellion?

Or ride in on a conquering horse and take over the world as the only Benevolent Dictator. His self worth would not be dependent on his rule and his justice would not be impaired by bribe or ignorance.

Instead he made Himself one of us. Not even an adult one of us, but a baby who traveled through the birth canal and breathed his first in a dirty stable. He was cheered by angels. He was feted by advisers to Kings. He was chased by Herod and obeyed a carpenter as his father. It seems the whole account was designed for us to wonder to find out why.

Luke and Matthew don't seem to agree unless you sit down and calculate stars and King Herod's lifespan and when sheep would likely be in the hills of Bethlehem. To the skeptic, there is much ammunition to shoot the whole thing down. To the seeker there is a bunch to bring into focus.

Many won't waste the time. Some will believe without looking. That number is dwindling. Others will reject it all without a glance
. Those numbers remain steady. Still others will try to line facts up and walk away convinced its all just myth that has somehow succeeded in being believed. Still others will keep at it. Determined to make sense of it all. "God is looking for those who worship Him in spirit and in truth." Eventually the search for truth will be rewarded by the Truth Himself.

A Merry Christmas to all and a curious Christmas if you are still seeking truth, like me.

Coal in Sony's stocking

Wow did Sony Pictures step in a mess! Santa put worse than coal in their stockings for Christmas over the potential release of "The Interview" on Christmas day. Once again our young nation fails to discern the culture and puts together a movie that antagonizes a more ancient one.

Frankly, in our culture the movie was going to tank. Hollywood has not done satire well lately. The North Koreans could have let the film fail, then laughed at the stupid Americans for putting out such drivel. That's not how their culture works.

Attacking the guy at the top is treason. Hey, that sounds familiar. Trying to assassinate the leader of the country is a death sentence. We do life in prison. So why are folks so up in arms about North Korea's response? Because its all satire, we wouldn't really want to see your leader dead. You know, we were just kidding. Here's a definition of satire, "the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing,denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc."

Satires are often used to make political statements. Not many political statements in the trailers, just a bunch of cheap jokes and off color crap. From the trailers, which are supposed to be the scenes to get a viewer to pay for a ticket, The two Americans are buffoons and Kim Jung Un is as decadent as where the two Americans are coming from. The only message from the trailer is that we are really not that much different from Kim and that Americans like to make power plays. 

I will say that North Korea's response was targeted and designed to communicate their dislike for attacking their supreme leader, even through satire. They exposed the guts of a Hollywood studio and revealed the mess seething under the surface. From jokes about our own president to disrespect of their own elite, Sony Studios looks terribly close to the decadent world that Seth Rogen and James Franco portray. Maybe this movie was not so much about North Korea as it was Hollywood.

So here's the question: is attacking Sony Pictures the same as attacking America?

I hate those who cling to worthless idols;

This is a thought from King David found in Psalm 31, which I am reading in preparation for Men's Bible Study. In David's day, the idols were actual statues of gold or lesser materials that sat in one's house. The word that poked me in the eye is "hate." Seems extreme, doesn't it? What about "feel pity for" or "pray for?" Why hate?

Very Distracting

Today we don't have idols sitting around the house. We are free to worship the true God with no distractions, right? I love the look of the 2015 Dodge Charger SRT. 400 some horsepower from 392 cubic inches, unless you what the supercharged model with 707 horsepower. I could get the groceries a few seconds faster in one of those for sure! Maybe you are into guns or four wheelers or clothes or tech.

I think David was led to write "hate" because its too easy to admire those with awesome toys, instead of admiring our awesome God. What about those who make cars or anything else look so important, so gold plated? What about the priests of commerialism, the evangelists?

Should be a good study this morning.

60's Redux

Feels like my childhood all over again. Once again we have protests in the streets and a successful launch and landing of a new spacecraft designed for human flight. The positive and negative of our society once again glaring for the world to see.

The effects of institutionalized slavery and our formation from a polyglot of other nations continues to haunt us in Ferguson and New York City and across the nation. The petty tension from misdemeanors has at least twice escalated into deadly confrontation. Smoking kills from more than just lung cancer. Why do our police feel threatened by large black men? Are they not trained to deal with these sorts of confrontations? Why do large black men feel threatened by police over petty theft? Can they not expect to plead out, pay a fine and learn their lesson?

The 'Why' questions point to deeper issues that each generation must solve for themselves. Parents and family can detoxify the atmosphere to some degree, yet the basic issue remains. That issue is "How will I react to someone who looks different from me and acts different from me?" Deeper yet, "Can I trust someone significantly different from me?" Police are in situations where trust has to be earned. Black neighborhoods are also places where trust has to be earned as well. Stealing, bullying, shooting and choking all erode trust.

How about the social responsibility of our news sources? Where are the pictures, vines and videos of different folks working together? Where are the live streams of police diffusing situations and perpetrators walking away safely in handcuffs? Where are the cell phone videos of communities improving the lives of others? Not news, you say. The way things are going, they may become news.

Image: NASA

The 60 other flashback splashed down in the Pacific Ocean today, as the first new spacecraft since the Shuttle took flight this morning. Orion lifted off flawlessly, orbited to a height of 3600 miles and returned to earthly over a roughly 4 hour period. Neat and smiling men and women told us of the various parts of the system, while live telemetry and video revealed each stage of the mission. Cronkite and his toy rockets were not needed this time.

Once again our thoughts are turned to the pristine blackness of space. Once again we see the world as a blue, white and brown ball on which we all live. Once again we are confronted with the fact that we all live in the same confine of the earth. We carry a drive to rise higher and go farther, to learn and create. This is the image of God in us as humanity, so stunningly carried out in space.

In fact our country, like many on the earth I'm sure, illustrates the evil of fallen man in our cruelty and fear, as well as the image of our Creator in our goals and achievements. So, I cheer on space exploration in hope that as we see more images of God's creation from on High, we will be more likely to open ourselves to God's love, which drives out fear.