the Eclectic Soul

Just Awesome!

Playing For Change | Song Around The World "Stand By Me" from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

Thinking of Advent

As we approach Advent I came across this clip again.  As funny as it is I think it's parody hits so close to home.  We often prefer the Jesus we've created in our own minds, giving preferential treatment to the Jesus we most resonate with.

It's amazing how close to home a humorous Hollywood movie clip can hit.

Mystery

Great TED talk by J.J. Abrams creator of LOST and Cloverfield. Abrams talks about the power of mystery.

Just One?

So last night I get home. Lisa and the boys are still downstate so I decide to go see a movie that she probably wouldn't be into. I see that Cloverfield is playing at 9:10 at our local cinema so I figure I'll go and and take it in [It was really good by the way...very post-modern...think Blair Witch meets Godzilla].

Anyway, I go to the ticket counter to buy my ticket and a remember that a family member of a church member works there. We exchange pleasantries and the I say, "one ticket for Cloverfield." She says, "just one?" To which I reply, "Yeah, just one. I used to be so cool and hang out with friends on Friday night and now here I am on Friday night going to a movie by myself. Just one." She laughed, gave me a ticket, and I sat in a theater full of giggly high-school kids scared out of their wits.

It made me miss Lisa and the boys even more.

Peace,

Eric

P.S. More on Cloverfield later...

Theomedia: Happy Feet

Although my wife and kids were able to go see Happy Feet when it was on the "big screen" I hadn't had the opportunity until just this past week.  I must admit I really enjoyed it.  In my opinion they did a great job choosing the voice overs: Robin Williams, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman were great.  I really liked the idea of the heart song too that was woven all through the movie; the idea that there is something inside us that serves as our one burning passion, even if in the case of the movie it was a way to woo and secure a mate.

What I found fascinating was the tension between the "old traditional" way of doing things [Emperor penguins sing] and this supposed new intrusive virus [Happy Feet, or Mumble, of course dances and doesn't sing].  Mumble just didn't act like an Emperor penguin so therefore he was banished because his heart song exhibited itself in a non-traditional way. 

It made me think a lot about the church.  So many desire that Christians look and act just like good Christians always have.  Yet there are some of us whose "heart song" isn't best exhibited in the traditional [or at least the modern Western expression] expressions of Christianity.  I think of, forgive me Doug [Pagitt], Emergent as the Church's "Happy Feet." Not only are we not content to be defined as Christians simply by tradition, but we are driven by the sense that we are participants in something that is both extremely ancient and extremely new at the same time.

I also found it interesting the risks to which "Mumble" was willing to go to demonstrate that their current state of affairs [a lack of fish] wasn't due to the fact that they had somehow displeased the "Great Gwinn" [the penguin god] but that a new species [human beings] were harvesting their waters taking in massive hauls of fish that were affecting the entire ecosystem.

It made me think about how fear works in the church and how powerful a grip it has on it.  We perceive anything "new" as a virus and abhorrent expression of faith that has no place in our current structure, when perhaps, as was the case in Happy Feet, this new expression can lead to life [Mumble manages to get the attention of human beings, after being captured, by unveiling his unique toe tapping gift and thereby the human beings decide that overfishing the area is no longer a viable option if it is going to destroy the Emperor penguin population].

So what's my point to all this?  Don't worry be Happy Feet! [OK sorry for that one I had to get it in there]

Seriously though, I think we have to ask ourselves, especially those of us within mainline expressions of Christianity, just was we are willing to risk to get the attention of those we need to.  And, not only that, but how might our courage inspire others to join in our own unique version of toe tapping in order that we might reach another entire generation with the Good News of the Gospel.

Well, these are just my initial thoughts anyway.  There are so many other things I can pull from the movie, the different species of penguins, and their interaction with Mumble, etc.  What do you think?

Peace,

E

I Like Movies

I must admit, I like movies.  Every now and then there's one I see that I think, "huh, surprisingly there's a message in there."

Tonight, Lisa and I sat and watched "Chocolat."  Now let me admit, this was not a movie I was terribly interested in either from the DVD case, or the plot.  A friend let us borrow his copy and he said it was great.....and.....surprisingly it was.

If you are one of those people for whom a movie will be ruined if you know the plot then stop reading now!

I mean it!

Really!

Anyway, as best as I can summarize it at around 2 a.m. [our youth have a lock-in with a neighboring church] the plot centers around a wandering woman and her daughter that drift from town to town, at the whim of this mysterious "North Wind" and set up a chocolate shop, just long enough to get run out of town to the the next one they find themselves in. This North Wind is sort of a superstitious voodoo power handed on down to this woman from her mother, who is naturally of South American descent I think.

She happens upon this quaint little French town set in the their ways; in many ways they are the new Pharisees:  Staunchly Catholic and theological fundamental.  When she is invited to church by the mayor of the town she politely refuses and states that she does not go to church.  Needless to say they do not take too kindly to her presence and, for the bulk of the movie, they are trying desperately to get her to leave town because she is "disturbing" their way of life.

To make a long post short, the movie turns towards the end with each party embracing the good in the other.  After much tension and stress between the two, each one sees that they can make their home together; that there is room enough for faith and friction. 

I began to think about the situation in many of our mainline denominations and the debates that are raging between the "right" [represented in the townspeople in the movie] and the "left" [this unconventional drifter woman and her daughter].  When we see each other as a threat there is no invitation issued to the table, simply tension and division.  Now, I know it's late and maybe I'll rethink this in the morning [oh, wait it is morning] perhaps we might understand that we really do need each other; that each one brings something to the conversation.  We spend so much time arguing about doctrinal stands and propositional truths all the while missing the relational depth that we are called to have, first with God, and then with others.   Perhaps there is a way for us to meet in the middle and find a way to live together in deferential love, not always loving to agree but always agreeing to love.

I don't know, these are just insomniatic thoughts late at night.  What do you think?

Grace & Peace,

E