Morning News, July 29

Some random observations:

1. The Olympics opening ceremony has set off a stir with some kind of drag queen tableau seeming to parody da Vinci's painting The Last Supper. Lots of people are angry and offended. Well, it's the French. That's a flippant remark, but would we really expect respect for religious iconography from them? Or respect for much of anything except their language and food?  To be honest, though, da Vinci's sort of had the depiction wrong anyway.  The disciples and Christ would not have sat at a table with a white cloth in a perfect geometrical arrangement, on only one side. 

Update, 8/3/24: The artist in charge of the design said it was based on another painting depicting the gods on Mt. Olympus.  Whatever. It was still vulgar and inappropriate. 

Of course, Facebook has lots of opinions. One lady posted something from a pastor who tried to put a good face on it, saying we should understand and have compassion on those who would do this because they are lost and ignorant. That's kind of condescending (they didn't know it was mocking a religious scene?), it's virtue signalling (see how compassionate I am), and the message is unlikely to get to the actors and designers of the tableau.  In fact, I am not even sure why I am writing about it here. I could delete these last two paragraphs, but I spent a lot of time on them.... as I am sure the designer of that Olympic exhibition did. ....

2.  I got a sense of what is wrong with the church today. As I walked past cars in the parking lot on the way to the sanctuary, one Subaru SUV sported some interesting "stickers" on the windows. On the back left drivers side were four: "Book Nerd" (usually a good thing), a quote about light and darkness from Professor Albus Dumbledore, a quote "I always wanted to use that spell," and a cat/kitten. On the back window were two small stickers with Bible verses, one of them from Romans 8, "If God be for us, who can be against us" and another (I checked back later) about light and darkness. On the back passenger-side window there was a neat set of stickers about The Lord of the Rings.

 It's the one about the spell that set me back on my spiritual heels and disturbed me. Spells are about control--getting people, or nature, or circumstances go the way you want. I wonder if Christians see prayer the same way, except that God is one of the objects of the control. Prayer is the opposite of control: prayer is the yielding of any kind of illusion of control. Prayer is dependence, weakness, humility; the not being able v. the struggle to be able. And definitely not a bending of God to one's will

Syncretism makes me spiritually uncomfortable. It's one thing to read a Harry Potter book; I read the first one and my son did too, but that was largely the end of that. No dress up at movie premieres, no toy broomsticks or wands. (I still say Rowling took a basic Roald Dahl plot device.) We had a prospective student come to the college a few years back and talk to the President about wanting to transfer to Hogwarts; that's taking it a bit far. 

I just have to wonder how seriously two world views can be considered at the same time, and how many people sit in church "with magical thinking."

3. The person who taught the sanctuary life group class gave us three words:  Pursue uncomfortable spaces. Something to mull over. There are many uncomfortable spaces, and they are not all the county jails (his example, and a good one). Human trafficking is one.  For me, wading into a group of young people as the old fogey.

4. The book of Proverbs shows us that humanity has not really changed in 3000 years. It contains much practical living guidance, but it does not speak to the spirit and our deepest need. There is little, on the surface, of grace, of sacrifice, of love, or of redemption.  No prophesy of a Messiah. And for all its high principles, the writer/compiler of most of them was kind of a washout on Jewish faithfulness and ethics. We can only benefit from them if we see the through a lens of grace, and the touchstone: the Fear of the LORD. 

5. I do not like songs about the blood of Christ. I think they miss the point, and I really don't believe they help nonbelievers understand the faith.  I do not want to come across like a heretic here, but I wonder if people who speak about the blood of Christ out of habit really consider the doctrine of penal substitutional atonement and Christus Victorious.

6. My mother died ten years ago today. It is a very clear memory. I was with her as she died, but not at the exact moment, which I regret.  We had, at least I did, special last few hours; I hope she had some consciousness of them.  She was 86, and uterine cancer took over her body.  I miss her.