The Mystery of Christ

I am a day late on getting back to you on the question posted in my original post on the Mystery of Christ. Have you decided on what you would tell the adulterous women? It seemed a pretty obvious priestly answer to tell the women that she in fact is living in sin and should dissolve the relationship with the man that is not her husband. In fact, it was what she thought Father Capon would have said. Instead...
Father Capon asked her what she wanted to do about it. His reason? It really boiled down to what she wanted to do and there wasn't anything that he could say that would change that. Essentially, when we ask people questions, we are not looking for additional information. We are trying to find out who thinks like we do. If we get a response to a question that does not match up with our way of thinking, we simply disregard the information. Yeah, we may nod our heads and say quaint things like "I see your point" or "I hear what you are saying" but we are really just being polite. Really, we are looking for people who think exactly as we do already. Unique is the person that asks questions who really just wants answers, not alliances.
Getting back to Helen, she is of course bewildered by in all and even asks,"Aren't you supposed to tell me to quit sinning?". The answer is no. Who on this green earth is going to stop sinning? No one. It is impossible to quit sinning. Who are we kidding when we try? God is not fooled, and we shouldn't be either. Jesus did not come to remove sin. He came, in His words, to find and save the sinners. He knew that sin wasn't going anywhere, but He brought us the Gospel, the Good News. Do you know what the Good News is? It's not just forgiveness of debt, it's much more. It is the Mystery of Christ.
The Old Testament or Covenant if you wish, paints a rather unhealthy view of God. He is blood-thirsty, angry, malicious, killer of women and children, and if these characteristics were in any other "person", we would call them evil. Because I believe the bible is a evolving revelation of who God really is, this does not offend me. Jesus shows up at halftime and says to us, "Hey, man, if you can see me, and you'd have to be blind not to, you have seen the Father". Wait a minute, God is not going to kill me if I don't give the right sacrifice at the temple today? You mean God is not going to strike be with a lightening bolt if I sin? What are you saying Jesus? Are you crazy? You are hanging around with gluttons, sluts, cheaters, swindlers. You are a drunk, party goer with no conscience. Are we to believe that God is this way? Yes, He says to us. That is exactly who God is. A friend of the sinner. A forgiver and forgetter. He is saying to all of you, I don't care about this "transactional" relationship we have going on. This tit-for-tat stuff has got to go. I love you as you are!! I made you this way, why are you trying to be something else. I realize that you are sinful and will continue to sin, but I don't care! I still love you!
Helen, as well as anyone who is living in "transactional" religion, is dumbfounded by this news. It sounds to good to be true. It can't be that simple. But that dear reader is exactly what it is, Good News.
Tomorrow I will try to be a little clearer on this subject to the Mystery of Christ, but in the mean time don't discount what has been said here just yet. If you unconvinced, please continue to read.

Till then,
SIM CP

Superman Returns

Went to see the movie tonight and because I don't want to spoil it for anybody, I have but a few words to say (and so that I don't offend anybody, I will use the official KJV)....DAMNETH that was awesometh!!

Sim CP

The Mystery of Christ...& why we don't get it by Robert Farrar Capon

I have begun to read the book mentioned in the title after I saw it mentioned in the afterwards of Rob Bell's book Velvet Elvis.
So far, it has been a great book. Robert Capon is an Episcopal priest and a very good author. He has laid out his book this way. The odd number chapters are real life counseling sessions he has had through his ministry (names and places changed of course). The even numbered chapters are a "conversation" between the reader and himself as he ventures to answer questions that he thinks will be raised from the previous chapter.
The first two chapter "session" deals with his counsel of a women having an affair. She comes close to loosing her daughter and makes an "agreement" with God that if He'd let her daughter make it through she would stop having the affair. The question to the minister is since her daughter has made it through the ordeal, does she have to keep her "agreement" with God about the affair.
What would you say to her?
His response tomorrow.

SIM CP

What Star Trek character are you? I'm...

Your results:
You are Spock

Spock 64% James T. Kirk (Captain) 55% Worf 55% Deanna Troi 55% Uhura 50% Jean-Luc Picard 50% Will Riker 50% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 45% Mr. Scott 45% Chekov 45% Data 44% Beverly Crusher 40% Geordi LaForge 40% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 40% Mr. Sulu 35%

You are skilled in knowledge and logic. You believe that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Test

Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell

Because my friend over at Words Less Spoken thought it was a pretty good book, I picked it up and read it. A very good book indeed. The idea started with his velvet Elvis painting's artist "signature", R. Rob Bell wondered if R. would have said to all the other painters in his era, "put all your paint brushes down, I have painted the greatest painting ever. There is no more need to paint ever again", what a tragedy! In like mind, what if we stop "seeking" after God. What if we say, "Hey, we don't need to look any further, we completely understand God and everyone else's understanding of God from this point on is going to come up short"? What an even greater tragedy! His book goes on to chronicle that we are to forever challenge, seek, question, until the day that we are known as we are known. One of his examples of this is the life of Martin Luther. Luther at some point in his life realized that something was...amiss?wrong? I am not sure what the word is, but I completely understand what he was going through. I have been on a similar quest. There is something...confused?blurred? Still not sure of the word.
This book really resonated with me on several levels. One in particular, which is, it's okay to challenge the status quo of spirituality. I think Jesus said it best (as He always does), "Keep knocking, Keep looking, Keep seeking, you will find what you are looking for" (my interp.) And as always, He is right.

Sim CP

Star Trek Cribs!

Without a doubt, one of the funniest things I have ever seen. I have watched this video clip probably 50 times while I am chillin, relaxing, or chillaxing. This is funny to me on several levels of which my kids,who also think this is hilarious, don't get. They like the end when Spock is dancing to "Gasolina". Here are a few reasons...One, I am a Star Trek fan. Two, I am familiar with MTV's Cribs enough to see the parody. Third, these dolls, uh excuse me, "action figures", really have great action and expressions. Knowing that Spock's character on Star Trek was so...logical makes this even funnier to me. There are more clips G4 did to market their Star Trek 2.0 series. There is one at a coffee shop and Spock is having trouble getting a WiFi connection on his laptop. Funny. There is one by the pool side with Capt. Kirk putting lotion on Aurora and Spock asking him to put some on his back. The only other one I saw has the crew at a karaoke bar and Spock is singing Bobby Brown's "Perogative". Spock is too groovy. All around,these clips are a great way to spend 60 seconds, or 3,000 depending on your funny bone density.
Scottie, Bring the Power!!

Is It Too Soon?

I love movies. I mean I really love movies. Because of that, I am always looking for what is coming up in the movie world. One of my favorite sites to visit is Coming Soon . There I can find out what is on the horizon, read storylines, and best of all, watch trailers for upcoming movies. Several months ago, I saw a trailer for United 93 . The trailer depicts a fictional, but probable exchange between the passengers and terrorists. I found it very hard to watch. The movie has been out at theaters, but I really didn't want to watch it. I thought it would be too hard.
Recently, I was looking around at new trailers and came across the trailer for World Trade Center . The movie is directed by Oliver Stone and stars Nicholas Cage. This trailer was even harder to watch. I could visualize what was going through the minds of the people working in and around the North and South towers. The emergency personnel who were first on the scene and would soon be. I tried to think, what would I have done? I really don't know. I would like to think that I would do something heroic, but who knows?
The problem for me is this, isn't it too soon? Has there been enough time between the actual events and now that we will be able to watch it on the big screen. Is it just me, or we rushing into this? I know that it has been five years, but is that enough time. We are still at war in the Middle East over this "spark" that started it all. Have we the courage to revisit this black moment in human events?
When I watched Schindler's List several months ago, I found that gut wrenching. How could this have happened on this planet? A few months after that I watched Hotel Rwanda. A very good movie, but equally gut wrenching. How could human beings do this to other human beings? The Holocaust took place before my life time. The slaughter of a million Tutsis by Hutu militia took place in 1994, and the movie came out ten years later.
I guess for me, because this atrocity took place in my own country, five years doesn't seem long enough. It seems to me waiting another ten years would seem a better time, to me anyway.