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Hollywood has been lax in producing decent blockbusters for the last year or so. If the best they can do is Spiderman III, then we're in big trouble. For someone like me who is an avid movie-goer, it's been very dissapointing.
Despite this trend, however, I'm looking forward to Will Smith's new movie. Early reactions to the movie have been very favorable. I hope it's as good as they're saying.
Visit the Official I Am Legend Website
Tags: Will Smith, I Am Legend
America's new home run king was indicted on perjury and obstruction of justice charges. This could well be the Shoeless Joe Jackson moment of the 21st Century.
Source: KTVU
HT: CNN Alerts
It's been awhile since I've posted any cool links, so here goes.
That's it for now. More soon, I'm sure.
I've cringed at the idea of churches confirming pre-teens for some time. Most preadolescents, as far as I can tell, aren't asking the right questions, yet we insist on giving them the answers anyway.
Here's what Barbara Brown Taylor has to say about this topic:
Twelve was the traditional age for confirmation in the Episcopal Church, when adolescents were invited to confirm the promises made for them at their baptisms. It was their turn to decide, we told them. We had spoken for them when they could not speak for themselves choosing members in Christ's body for the same way we chose warm clothes and nourishing food for them. On the verge of adulthood, they now had the choice. Did they desire to live the Christian life?
Since it is difficult to say no to a question like that , most of them say yes. When the bishop came for his annual visitation they lined up before him for the laying on the hands. . .
Afterwards there was a big party in the parish hall, which many of those young people mistook as graduation. The first adult decision that some of them made was to not attend church anymore, which helped explain why so many grown-ups held adolescent views of faith. Sixth grade was as far as they had gotten in their schooling, which meant that many of them lived the rest of their lives as a spiritual twelve-year-old.
The same can be said of a lot of Baptists and Methodists I know.
Source: Leaving Church by Barbara Brown Taylor, p. 202.
There's nothing more refreshing than beginning the day with a good cup of coffee & one of Barbara Brown Taylor's books. Here's what she says about being a priest (pastor):
Even now I would prefer a more user-friendly word like pastor, but the truth is that an ancient word like priest captures the risk of this vocation as well as any word I know. In my lexicon, at least, a priest is someone willing to stand between God and the people who are longing for one another's love, turning back and forth between them with no hope of tending either as well as each deserves. To be a priest is to serve a God who never stops calling people to do more justice and love more mercy, and simultaneously to serve people who nine times out of ten are just looking for a safe place to rest. To be a priest is to know that things are not as they should be and yet to care for them the way they are. To be a priest is to suspect that there is always something more urgent that you should be doing, no matter what you are doing, and to make peace with the fact that the work will never get done. To be a priest is to wonder sometimes if you are missing the boat altogether, by deferring pleasure in what God has made until you have fixed it up so that it will please God more.
See what I mean.
Source: Leaving Church by Barbara Brown Taylor, p. 44.
I suppose this will be my final tidbit from Soul Graffiti.
Scandrette proposes the pathway of a healer. It's a pathway of give-and-take; giving and receiving (ultimately) healing from God.
Source: Soul Graffiti by Mark Scandrette, pp. 173-182.
This has all of the trappings of an interesting bible study or sermon.
Scandrette examined the NT and identified seven themes based on how Jesus taught and lived: service, simplicity, creativity, obedience, prayer, community and love. Here's what he says about the SEVEN:
These SEVEN also serve as the basis of a Christian community in San Francisco.
As I perused this list of values, I wondered where something as basic as "making disciples" fits in. Or something like, say, communion.
Source: Soul Graffiti by Mark Scandrette, p. 243.
[Click on photo for larger, richer view.]
It's that time again for another Flickr Fridays posting. Sorry about last week. I totally forgot about posting a photo.
The doc put me on some new meds today. Hopefully, that will begin to resolve my ongoing gastro problems.
I hope you & your clan have a wonderful, relaxing weekend.
pax,
meb
Here's another quotation worth sharing:
In our time, Jesus is regularly made protector of the establishment and empire, or he is reduced to a saccharine savior. The words of Jesus are so familiar as to be passe. We may have to adjust our expectations about the kind of character he was in order to understand his message more clearly. Jesus came proclaiming "good news" that would challenge the status quo. His words were intended to provoke us to think and act in new ways--to dismantle and sabotage our long-held assumptions and habits so that we might be released into a better way of life.
Source: Soul Graffiti by Mark Scandrette, p. 34.
