August 25 Worship: "Monsters University"

On Sunday, we took our last breath before our congregational activities resume their regular monthly schedule -- a fact that was evident in the number of announcements of upcoming activities.  While there some medical prayer concerns in our congregation, there also were several reports of joys, which brightened our worship.  (I get the impression that "Amazing Grace" during communion may have brightened worship as well.)

We also continued our "Summer Blockbuster Sermons Series" by considering the difference our Christian faith should make in our ambitions.  Drawing upon the epistle of James, particularly Chapter 3, I suggested that Christians should have ambition, but it shouldn't be selfish -- as James says, it should be gentle.

If you missed Sunday's sermon, if you'd like to listen to it again, or if you'd like to share it with others, you can find an audio recording here.

At the Lord's Table, I suggested that Communion could offer a model of such unselfish ambition.  You can listen to this meditation here.  And, if you'd like, you can listen to the benediction here.

Prayer for Mission in Israel

This week we pray for the ongoing mission in Israel.  You can read more about the mission to Israel here, including some reflections on how the "Arab Spring" is affecting Israelis and Palestinians.

There are Christian missionaries serving on our behalf in many countries around the world.  Each week, Global Missions highlights the work in one of the countries and asks the wider church to pray for its continued vitality in spreading the Gospel.

Coming Up Sunday, August 25

This week, we continue our "Summer Blockbuster Sermon Series" with the latest animated feature by Pixar, "Monsters University."  This is a prequel to "Monsters, Inc.," a movie that explored every child's fear of monsters hiding under the bed.  Before big blue Sully and the green one-eyed Mike Wazowski become a top team of "scarers," they met in college.

In a light-hearted, but surprisingly mature way, "Monsters University" explores ambition and friendship and how they can impact each other.  As Americans, we believe that ambition is almost always a good thing, but we also recognize that it can run amok.  We'll consider what the epistle of James has to teach us about ambition and its impact on relationships.

Here is one trailer for "Monsters University":

August 18 Worship: "Man of Steel"

On Sunday, we gathered for another bright summer worship service, featuring another sermon from the "Summer Blockbuster Sermon Series."  We also heard from the Robert Zornes, Executive Director of Mother's Refuge, a local social service agency that assists young mothers during their pregnancy and with their newborn children.  He thanked Eastgate for our ongoing support of Mother's Refuge and the positive work they are doing to give young mothers and their children a better chance at a stable, healthy, and productive life.

In the sermon, we considered possible religious themes from the new Superman movie, "Man of Steel."  After pointing to some of the parallels between the character of Superman and Jesus (which I think are mostly intentional), I suggested that a parallel in their development suggested a way we could better appreciate how Jesus chose to accept a life of suffering in order to fulfill his purpose as the Messiah -- not only through his crucifixion, but throughout his entire ministry.

Drawing upon the famous "Man of Sorrows" passage from the prophet Isaiah, which is the traditional Good Friday lesson, I suggested that God's gracious desire to forgive and save all of creation -- likely for the purpose of restoring the unity and wholeness of creation, as I talked about last Sunday -- put Jesus in a position where he had to suffer because he could not simply use force to compel people to follow him.  This is a lesson for us too, who would follow in Jesus' footsteps: in our efforts to lead by faithful example, we will sometimes be misunderstood, railed against, and caught in the middle.

If you missed Sunday's sermon, if you'd like to listen to it again, of if you'd like to share it with others, you can find an audio recording here.

At the Lord's Table, I briefly reflected on how this understanding of Jesus' life as one of suffering, as opposed to just his death, ties into the meaning of the bread of Communion, as it parallels the meaning of the bread shared during a Passover Seder.  You can listen to this meditation here.

Prayer for Mission in Turkey

This week we pray for Alison Stendahl, our missionary to Turkey, who serves as dean and teaches math at Uskudar American Academy.

You can read more about the mission to Turkey here, including a prayer for those refugees who have found refuge in the country and those who care for them.

There are Christian missionaries serving on our behalf in many countries around the world.  Each week, Global Missions highlights the work in one of these countries and asks the wider church to pray for its continued vitality in spreading the Gospel.

Coming Up Sunday, August 18

This week we continue our "Summer Blockbuster Sermon Series" with one of the big hits of the summer, "Man of Steel," which has sold almost $290 million worth of tickets in the US in just over two months.  The reboot of the Superman franchise, starring British actor Henry Cavill as the high-flying hero, features a well-known cast including Amy Adams, Lawrence Fishburne, Russell Crowe, Diane Lane, and Kevin Costner.  With lots of expensive computer graphics, the movie aspires to offer an "origin story" of Superman, the how and why of the man in the cape.

Superman, whether in the comics, on TV, or in movies, has always had religious overtones, and this latest film is no different.  As is said in the trailer below, a man who can fly and has superhuman strength is a god on earth.  But "Man of Steel" suggests a direct parallel with Jesus.  In claiming his identity as not like other humans, Superman willingly accepts the potential for rejection from humanity; in one place, Superman even says that he will suffer to save humankind.  The question for Christians is simple: how should we understand this parallel between Superman and Jesus?  Using the "man of suffering" prophesy in Isaiah 53, we will consider this question on Sunday.

Here is one of the official trailers for "Man of Steel," complete with a few religious overtones:

August 11 Worship: "Now You See Me"

We continued our look at religious themes in summer movies by turning our attention to the magical heist caper "Now You See Me" and the issue of justice that it raised.  In particular, I wanted to build on the recognition that any personal attempt at retribution or justice usually never approaches a perfectly just ending, where people get exactly what they deserve in the end.

More than this, though, I wanted to use this idea of a limited view of justice -- the idea that although we recognize there are many injustices in the world, we are most concerned with how things will turn out for us and those we know -- and compare it to a similar vision of divine justice.  What if we tried to understand how God could get such limited justice -- so that everything would end up in a way that God deserves.  Drawing upon the prophet Isaiah, and contrasting other examples as the end of Job and the background of the flood in Genesis, I suggested that the loss that God feels because of our wrongdoings and sinfulness cannot be perfectly be addressed -- meaning that God cannot get full justice for creation based on our actions.  Instead, I believe God offers forgiveness as the best way to restore some wholeness into the broken world -- a world that God carefully created and filled with people and things that God loves.

To be honest, I talked quite a bit in the sermon on Sunday -- longer than I had planned, though I really didn't get sidetracked.  (I spent longer than I had anticipated trying to explain our usual view of justice, which focuses on how we want things to work out well for us.)  But the topic of justice was in no way exhausted.  If I were a Baptist who preached for an hour on Sundays, I could easily draw the link from this view of divine justice to the coming of Jesus Christ as Emanuel, "God with us" (and have filled out the hour).  Still, despite wishing that the middle section was shorter, I believe that the final 10 minutes of the sermon are vitally important for Christians who want to mature in love and forgiveness -- and I don't think those 10 minutes make sense without understanding the common view of justice, even common in the Bible, which is usually more about what we want and what we think we deserve, rather than what God wants or deserves.

If you missed Sunday's sermon, if you'd like to listen to it again, or if you'd like to share it with others, you can find an audio recording here.

Prayer for Mission in Japan

This week we pray for Martha Mensendiek, our missionary to Japan, who teaches social welfare at Doshisha University in Kyoto.

You can read more about the mission to Japan here, including a story about long-standing Christian efforts to strengthen the social fabric.

There are Christian missionaries serving on our behalf in many countries around the world.  Each week, Global Missions highlights the work in one of these countries and asks the wider church to pray for its continued vitality in spreading the Gospel.

Coming Up Sunday, August 11

This week we continue the "Summer Blockbuster Sermon Series," by looking at the surprisingly successful magicians robbing banks thriller, "Now You See Me."  The movie, starring such popular faces as Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Mark Ruffalo, and Woody Harrelson, alongside popular younger actors Jesse Eisenberg and Isla Fisher (who coincidentally had a supporting role in "The Great Gatsby"), offers a flashy tale of a team of magicians who add large scale heists to spectacular magic shows.

The movie (and particularly its ending, which I will do my best to keep a secret) offers interesting questions about justice -- what's right and what's wrong.  There are many passages in the Bible that deal with issues of justice, but we'll use Isaiah 59 as our starting point for considering this issue.  Examples from other summer releases, "The Internship" and "The Bling Ring," will also provide food for thought as we consider this deep question about how justice is achieved in this world.

If you have not seen "Now You See Me," here is one of the official trailers:

August 4 Worship: "The Great Gatsby"

Despite the rather dreary weather Sunday morning, our gathering was rather boisterous -- the conversations before and after worship certainly seemed and sounded spirited!  Our worship in between those gatherings was rather spirited too, as we celebrated a successful Vacation Bible School and we began the Summer Blockbuster Sermon Series.

The first summer movie this year was the new adaptation of "The Great Gatsby."  Considering the showy opulence of the movie, which represents the almost unimaginable wealth of the main characters, I suggested that we knew from history that this wealth was built on an foundation doomed to fall.  Further, these characters and their relationships reminded me of the Pharisees that often argued with Jesus, who were so worried about their outward appearances, but less about their inner substance.

Drawing upon Jesus' teaching recorded in Matthew 23, I suggested the challenge of hypocrisy in lives of faith as we seek to follow Jesus' commands not to be hypocrites and also recognizing that, inevitably, we sometimes are hypocritical in our words and deeds.  Still, as disciples of Jesus, we are to strive to allow God to transform our inner substance, even as we worry about how we appear to others that we are trying to impress.  Sometimes, God may even work through our hypocrisy, allowing our hearts to follow our speech in matters of forgiveness, love, and generosity -- sometimes we learn to talk about such things in a Christian way before we completely mean them with every fiber of our being.

If you missed Sunday's sermon, if you'd like to listen to it again, or if you'd like to share it with others, you can find an audio recording here.

Prayer for Mission in the Dominican Republic

This week we pray for Ashley Holst, a Global Missions intern in the Dominican Republic, who works with street children as part of Proyecto Caminante's Outreach Ministry.

You can read more about the mission to Ecuador here, including the story of how a summer camp works to offer children a different path in communities with a history of gang violence.

There are Christian missionaries serving on our behalf in many countries around the world.  Each week, Global Missions highlights the work in one of these countries and asks the wider church to pray for its continued vitality in spreading the Gospel.

Coming Up Sunday, August 4

This week, we begin our "Summer Blockbuster Sermon Series."  First up is Baz Luhrmann's lush adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel, The Great Gatsby, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, and Carey Mulligan.  Set among the very wealthy during the Roaring 20s, the movie explores the darker side of lives filled with fancy cars, expensive clothing, lavish parties, and free-flowing alcohol (at the height of Prohibition).

This is reminiscent of the example of the Pharisees, who frequently clashed with Jesus over his actions and his teaching.  Jesus accuses them of being all show and no substance, people who worry more about their social status than how they actually live theirs lives -- which is to say, they don't actually seem to be following the religious life that they so strenuously insist others live.  The most extensive list of problems with the Pharisees is recorded in Matthew 23.

If you haven't seen the new big-budget version of The Great Gatsby, you can watch the trailer here: