A Christmas Story is Every Story in HIStory

When Christmas comes around there are the classic Christmas movies that come with it.  Some variation of the Christmas Carol, a funny Christmas Vacation, Elf or the classic “It’s a Wonderful Life.” But last night, the wife and I couldn’t come up with an appropriate Christmas movie to watch.  The lack of anything on broadcast tv, on streaming services and on DVD made the options both voluminous but limited. Nothing seemed to fit what I was looking for which seemed to be something with some more depth and some history to it.  

After scanning all options for a period of time, there were two movies watched this Christmas of 2019 that seemed to hit upon several themes not only for the year but possibly for the decade. 

 

The two movies, “Hotel Mumbai” and “Operation Finale” seem to me to hit on several themes:

Sins of hatred, murder, envy, and other general themes like terrorism, economics, politics, and religion. 

Sure, my picking of these films have to do with my love of history, but there seemed to be more and I wondered and prayed about what God may be trying to teach at this moment through Christmas and these films.  Then my mind hit on Herod and the Maji:

Matthew 2:1-12

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2and asked, “Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”

3When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. 5”In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

6’But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

for out of you will come a ruler

who will be the shepherd of my people Israel’.”

7Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you have found him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

9After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. 12And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

In this, Herod this politically proclaimed “King of the Jews” by Romans was faced with another King and felt vulnerable, jealous, and wanted to hold on to power no matter the cost. 

This made me think of the films.  The dictatorial reign of Hitler laid waste to so many lives that it still stretches into history today.  Are we learning from history? The religious pains of history in India and Pakistan stain the recent past and present.  The Jews of 1st Century A.D. had many issues with their Roman rulers and a Roman ruler had an issue with a new King even if that King’s kingdom was both “now and coming” spiritual and physical. The hatred comes through.  

This Christmas, there are many examples of tyrants, want to be tyrants, those holding on to power, those who are fearful of losing power, and those who fear the King of the Jews and the King of kings. We celebrate the birth of God who came inflesh as a baby in a humble settings who came to transform our simple lives and change the life of the world around us. Let us celebrate even as great sin storms through the past and present as that baby died for such sin and evil.  Let His life and death 

This Christmas among the celebration of Jesus and His birth, God also had me see the great sins of the past in painful history.  In that, God says here is my beloved Son who died for such sin and pain. Do not fear the terrorist, the dictator or want to be dictators of this world for I am with you always.  And Jesus said to forgive them, love them, and pray for them.

When Mondu Meets Grey

James Harden's Shoes v. Traditional Korean Blanket

On the right is James Harden's shoes he's wearing for tonight's game.  They reminded me of something.....

May the 4th, 2019 Be With You

Outside of the current Marvel series, no other franchise has entered the public and world consciousness like Star Wars (sorry Star Trek).  Thus, it was inevitable that the May the 4th be with you trend is stronger than ever as the franchise has created it's own holiday of sort (which isn't saying much when we have PB&J day or Administrative appreciation day etc).  Nevertheless, it makes one think about the franchise and of course Luke, the "Christ-like" figure whose last film appearance was "controversial" to say the least when Ryan Johnson was the iconoclast to burst our collective bubbles on his return but maybe in a good way because Luke was "Christ-like" and not Christ who is perfect and a savior.  He was human, like we who seek to be Christ-like are human.  And he ultimately sacrificed himself for others as we who seek to be Christ like should sacrifice ourselves for others.  

While this silly holiday among other silly holidays is not one for deep reflection or time with family, the fun of it still hearkens to something deep within others, the desire for a hero, the fight of good against evil, and the battles where sometimes evil wins against good and others die in the war.  Most people whether they admit it or not desire for someone to be a hero and savior in this life and next.  

Holy Saturday - The Crux

(I had originally written this back in 2007 or so, but I like to re-post it from time to time)

I try to share this every Saturday before Easter/Resurrection Day.  It is part of a blog entry I wrote years ago and I've shared it a few times on Facebook.   

Some years back I read a book called "The Idiot" (by Fyodor Dostoevsky) and no book, outside of the Bible, has impacted my life and no other novels of literature have compared to that novel (in my opinion).

The Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky while living in Bern, Germany came upon the panting (see below) and was mesmerized. Dostoevsky saw what the painting depicted as the pivot on which faith or unbelief must rest. One must either believe that God raised Jesus’s body from the dead, and there is, therefore, hope for humanity beyond this life, OR accept that such an event never occurred, and because contrary to the laws of nature, never could occur, and that we are thus trapped in a mechanized universe in which the dead stay dead. Dostoevsky included the painting in a scene of his novel, The Idiot.

(Painting is, "The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb" by Hans Holbein the Younger ).

Doestoevsky using the painting in his book, "The Idiot" a character named Ippolit states upon seeing the paiting:

"Looking at that picture, you get the impression of nature as some enormous, implacable, and dumb beast, or, to put it more correctly, much more correctly, though it may seem strange, as some huge engine of the latest design, which has senselessly seized, cut to pieces, and swallowed up–impassively and unfeelingly–a great and priceless Being, a Being worth the whole of nature and all its laws, worth the entire earth, which was perhaps created solely for the coming of that Being! The picture seems to give expression to the idea of a dark, insolent, and senselessly eternal power, to which everything is subordinated, and this idea is suggested to you unconsciously. The people surrounding the dead man, none of whom is shown in the picture, must have been overwhelmed by a feeling of terrible anguish and dismay on that evening which had shattered all their hopes and almost all their beliefs at one fell blow. They must have parted in a state of the most dreadful terror, though each of them carried away within him a mighty thought which could never be wrested from him. And if, on the eve of the crucifixion, the Master could have seen what He would look like when taken from the cross, would he have mounted the cross and died as he did?” (Penguin 1955, tran. by David Magarshak, 446-7).

Well if you got through all that reading...then the answer to Ippolit's question for us is surely YES. God did know how hard the crucifixion would be upon Him, those disciples and believers who followed Jesus, but still went through with it ultimately for their (and our) benefit. Just as today God has us go through many hardships that we do not fully understand, but ultimately it is for the good of those who love him (Romans 8:28).

However, what we see today is hindsight. We know the Christ has risen. Nevertheless, those disciples looked upon Jesus and were haunted just as that painting is haunting by showing a lifeless savior and a hope/promise questioned. It seems as though many in the world are stuck in this position today. Agnostics and those apathetic to His existence sit upon this haunting precipice exhibited in this painting.

I pray you have a blessed Holy Saturday. Moreover, I pray you have a blessed Resurrection Day for those of us who have stepped off the precipice in faith knowing He has risen and one day we will rise to meet Him soon.

Simple Prayer & Groaning Prayer = Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah?

We today yearn for prayer and hide from prayer.  

We are attracted to it and repelled by it. -Richard J. Foster.

I have been reading off and on Richard J. Foster's book Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home. In the beginning chapter by talking about the intro prayer that said from the Christian and non-Christian alike (but they may not even know they are doing it) it is called by Foster as Simple Prayer.  In Simple Prayer it is a beginning prayer, but prayer that tends to be self-focused and other times outright selfish.  It has no guidelines from scripture (Jesus, instructing his disciples to pray like this for example).  It is being real with God on who we are and where we are right now.   As Christians we should progress from Simple Prayer, but we will never escape it completely if we are to come to God as we are and what we are many times is not pretty.  Scripture is littered with them like Psalm 137:9. 

The other prayer I was thinking of is the prayer that doesn't even escape our lips. This groaning prayer.  It is a deep, emotional state (usually grief and pain) that is deep in our mind, soul and feeling that can't be put into words.  It is this loss for words but wanting to say so much that is a groan (either internal or expressive) in this the Holy Spirit interprets it and intercedes for us by expressing the deep feelings that can't be put into words.  (Romans 8:26, Acts 7:34).

Simple prayer and the groaning prayer, is mainly a Christian thing but not exclusively.  God, through the Holy Spirit, works on and through the hearts of the non-Christian as well.  They wrestle with God and with the concept of God just as Christians but tend to push Him away to different degrees. Nevertheless, they intrigued by Him and simultaneously run from Him if they fear that the concept of God would mean in their lives.  Thus, it is interesting that the song from Jewish, Buddhist who was intrgeed by Christ, Leonard Cohen's song, Halleluljah has impacted so many people.  Christian and non-Christian alike.  It is like Cohen has tapped into the simple prayer and groaning deep troubling, pain, and hurt prayer that can't be put into words and gave it poetic words set to music. 



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Scientology: The Worst Cult?

Today is supposedly Christmas to Scientologist.  It is the birthday of L. Ron Hubbard the mastermind behind the worst cult in the United States and many parts of the world.  As I watch Leah Remini's A&E series on Hulu, Scientology and the Aftermath, I am reminded of the damage that cults in various forms have on families and society.

But is it the worst cult in the world?  I would gather that the worst cult in the world is still the cult of personality that is the DPRK, North Korea.  In many ways, Scientology mirrors the Kim Regime in the DPRK.  To many to list, but the control of information, limiting of family interaction, attacking critics, attacking those who have escaped, and locking people up and abusing them (some to their death). 

For myself, cults and the abuse of a religion towards others is something I'm familiar with in my life and family.  It is what caused the divorce of my parents.  My sister was part of and had to get out of a cult.  No group should prevent you from asking questions or seeking truth.

L.Ron Hubbards Birthday should be cult awareness day.   Today should be a day we pray for those stuck in any religious, ideological, or political cult that controls someone, cuts them off from family and society, abuses them, and their money, talents and lives.

When Dax Shepherd from Parenthood thinks you're Punny...

Then it's time to retire from your comedy career on top (note to self, Dax Shepherd is not Zach Braff).

"Me? I know who I am! I'm a dude playing a dude disguised as another dude.

This song has been on the intro on some of the Youtube video's I regularly watch and I can't get the song off the brain: