A Break from Blogging (and everything Else)

A Couple of years ago someone pointed out to me that the only part of our regular calendar that isn't based upon the movement of some Heavenly body is the 7-day week. I think it is interesting that the day is based on the earth spinning, the month (loosely) is based upon the orbit of the moon, and the year on the earth's orbit around the sun. But the week is based upon the fabric of Creation - as explained in Genesis 1 - that we work six days and rest.

I think we will probably alternate Sabbath blogging with Movies (because we seem to be running out of days relative to writers), but on many Fridays I hope the blog is a simple encouragement to you to participate with the creator of the world. The rhythm he set up from the beginning is work most of the week, and rest and corporate worship on the first day. There are arguments about all of these things, and that is why I am keeping it vague (for now :) ). Simply put, remember to rest this weekend. If you want a reference the longer version of the Commandment (it had already appeared in Exodus 16 and Genesis 1, is Exodus 20:8-11 and it is still easy to apply to our weekends in 2009.

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Enjoy your day off - it is a sign that you know who made the world. And, I hope you will enjoy corporate worship with Riverside on Sunday morning.

Commandment 11: Thou Shalt Not Be A Gamer

So… when Blazer asked me to be one of the reoccurring Riverside Church bloggers, it only made sense that I shamelessly use the platform to wax eloquently (or not so eloquently) about all things addictively entertaining (from Reality TV to low budget Sci- Fi originals (holla out to my boy Brent Roam -- star of Tremors 4), from blockbuster movies to video games and everything in between. (How’s that for a run-on sentence?)

Anyhow… I’ll do my best to keep regular and share a tidbit or two about the latest and greatest of all these things, and do my best to provoke some earnest dialogue about how Christians engage within our everyday culture throughout.

For my first inaugural posting though, I thought I’d step back a second and talk briefly about video games and how they’ve led me closer to Jesus. (You laugh, but I’m serious!) It felt appropriate, in the wake of weekly scoffing from the churched and non-churched alike, that I tell you my story…

Like many, I grew up in a pretty good Christian home. One thing that stood out though, was that besides alcohol, the only other thing we never had around… was video games. All my friends had Nintendos and Play Stations, but for the most part, we had zilch. That is… until college. When college rolled around, I was baptized into the world of late night having, class-ditching Playstation and Nintendo 64 game delight! It was glorious! Then...I got married. (Pause)

To be fair to my wife, it was I who made the call to get rid of the thing, since I would frequently not be aware that she had gotten home from work 30 minutes earlier (as I was deeply engrained into the next mission on Golden Eye etc). It was the right decision!

For more than 6 years the Hogan home was video game free. Kids were born, hands were full, time was busy etc. Then, one day... (the heavens parted)...and a game called Gears of War came out on the Xbox 360. Within 3 months, me and 10 other dudes had all convinced our wives that it was gonna be different this time, and almost overnight each one of us got a system and spent every hour playing games. This time however, WAS a bit different. Technological advancements gave us the advent of the wireless headset (which allows you to talk to your friends as you team up and play games together), and since most of us only started playing after the wife and kids were in bed, games started being tolerated by our families and the world was in perfect balance.

So up until this point, you’re probably rolling your eyes if you haven’t stopped reading entirely. Thanks for bearing with me. Here’s the catch. Over the course of a few weeks, something happened. Similar to when guys get together week after week for a softball game, or to shoot hoops, community started forming. Real, honest-to-goodness community. It’s amazing how close you get to someone, when you’re huddled in a trench or behind cover, back to back trying not to get pwned. Real conversation, which led to real relationship building, which eventually led to (what’s now a 2 years and going strong) 14 man bible study… happened! In fact, guys who I’d only met online (friends of friends in town) started actually becoming real life friends. Bonds were formed, relationships grew and now I’m part of a gang of dudes who love Jesus and one another, and are committed to serving each other as the gospel has taught us to.

I’ve left a lot of details out, and this isn’t all due to the release of Halo3 or that Microsoft paid for this blog spot or anything. I guess I just see it as a good example of how God can use a “secular” medium for his glory. You’ll note a continued theme throughout most of my upcoming postings (via the likes of Tim Keller, Mike Erre) about how we as Christians are supposed to engage in our culture and not remove ourselves from it. Are there limits? Certainly! Are there problems with addiction and excess? Absolutely! But do we throw it all away because it’s not the over sanitized Christians only... Left Behind: The Kirk Cameron Video Game? Come on!

If video games aren’t your thing... that’s cool. Maybe it’s scotch. Maybe its quilting. Maybe it’s HSM (that stands for High School Musical... you nerds know who you are). Whatever it is, can we agree that in an appropriate context, God can use the most unlikely experiences for his glory?

Ask yourself this… WJBAG (Would Jesus Be A Gamer?)

The answer is an emphatic yes… (his gamertag is y@w3h#1)!

-Josh Hogan. Culture Thursdays will alternate (with little rhyme or reason) with Theology Thursday, and will feature many authors.

Parenting Stories

-On a good week Wednesday will be the day we engage what it means to be a parent and believe the Gospel. Today's post is by Greta Coalier.

When my first daughter, Sadie was a few months old we were invited to my friend’s house for coffee. Her son was the same age as Sadie and I remember gazing adoringly at our sweet babies while sipping coffee and chatting. Somehow in conversation the nature of sin came up and how our babies were wired for it already. I thought to myself maybe your baby is full of sin but my baby is perfect and wonderful and pure as the driven snow. I mean, what does it even mean to be "wired for sin"? You may have guessed by now that I am still on the bunny slope of this Christian path. Maybe a year and a half later as I was learning more and more about Jesus and falling head over heels for him, Sadie, my sweet innocent baby looked straight at me and told me her first lie. Sam or I had not taught her how to lie. We did not model that behavior or read books about it. My sweet girl figured it out all on her own and I realized the truth of my friend’s words. From that moment on I understood on a whole other level my intense need for Jesus.

I forgave Sadie that day, before she had even finished her tantrum. We are built from the ground up needing and wanting and manipulating to get what we want, and as a parent sometimes all I can do is forgive. But here is the rub; I fight God all the time. I think my plans, my parenting; my control is enough for my kids. Sadie is going to start kindergarten in the fall and I spend nights awake, full of fear thinking I have made the wrong choice, she needs a different school, a better school, I haven’t done enough research. And, I still have oceans of parenting in front of me!

I can feel the love I have for my children like an ache because it is so vast and sometimes frightening. It makes the love of Jesus that much more difficult to understand in its depth and richness. As a parent I am still trying to get off the bunny slope. I forget to pray, I forget to let things go, I frantically try and control but I know God forgives me and that he is with me. God is parenting my children with me, I am not alone. That sounds simple, but it is profoundly comforting.

About a year ago Sam and I decided that he would get a vasectomy. I felt sure that three girls was my limit! At the time we said things like, “ if God really wants us to have a forth child he can make it happen regardless of this surgery.” However we didn’t really believe that! It just sounded good saying it; like we were sure God was on board with our decision. So yes, we are pregnant with our forth child, on the bunny slope. We are unsure and frightened. But, we still believe we are not alone in our parenting.

-Greta Coalier

Simple Question

In the brilliant novel Gilead, John Ames says, "Wherever you turn your eyes the world can shine like transfiguration," he writes. "You don’t have to bring a thing to it except a little willingness to see. Only, who could have the courage to see it?"

What Maryilynne Robinson is getting at is our temptation to see some things as more spiritual than other things. I have that tendency. Why? Why do I think that making (or eating) an omelet is less spiritual (or not at all spiritual) than prayer, or going to church?

Are you that way? Why or why not? How did you get this way, and what do you think of it?

Through the above link you can listen to Sunday's sermon on "How Jesus looked at people" for additional thoughts/provocation/insight.

-Matt

Music Monday (Usually Tuesday)

I am going to let you guys in on a little secret - Zack Eswine loves Journey. As someone who began to love music - I mean REALLY love music - during the beginning of the 1990’s this seems like musical blasphemy. From my perspective, in 1991, Nirvana lined up Journey and all of their peers (G&R, Motley Crue, Ratt, any band with big hair) and instantly made them irrelevant. This probably says a lot more about me than it does about any of the bands listed above.
Why do I constantly try to take something so remarkably subjective like musical taste/context and try to force it into objective truth? I also seem to love to judge and categorize. I wonder if I do it to create a false sense of security for myself – of course only in regard to my opinions concerning music ☺.
Journey rocks – at least they did when Steve Perry was their lead singer. Nirvana didn’t change that. They probably were a better representation of what was happening in our culture during 1991, but that certainly doesn’t make it “better”.
In this space I hope to explore why music matters, at least in a subjective way. Sometimes that will be in the form of a review or suggestion, sometimes commentary, sometimes I might just ramble on and on. Upfront I would like to state that I do not come to judge but to discuss and appreciate. For reasons beyond current human understanding God has created for us a world in which bare melodies can transform our perception of the world. Nietchze said that “life without music is a mistake.” So let us not make that one.
The authors of Music Monday love comments, topic ideas, and sharp negative criticism... Or, just the first two!

-Jason Wilson

A New Blog (almost) Rolled Out

So, the blog hasn't really been the dream-come-true we thought it might be!

I don't know if we knew what that would be, but we're clear it isn't accomplishing as much discussion as we would like.

Therefore, we are going to roll out a different flavor for about a month and see how that strikes everyone.

The preacher will still write about the sermon, but now we will be collecting that blog on Sunday Night (because you all check your blogs on Monday morning), and then we will begin a wider authorship - including music, TV, parenting, church-in-general, and other topics. So, this will begin next Monday morning, and we hope you enjoy it.

The purpose will be the same: to engage our mission and vision (namely Jesus... don't know if you've been catching that focus through the sermons) through the lens of our lives and the dominant culture. If you have thoughts please post them, if you would like to write please send Matt an email, and if you're opposed you're going to have to stop clicking on the blog because Google Analytics knows when you click!

Thanks!

-Matt

Jesus and the Bible

So today’s topic might not be the most interesting, but who knows…some might find it quite interesting to chew on and think about (ooh, ending a sentence in a preposition! Mrs. Cramer, my eighth grade English teacher, would have my hide!).

Yesterday’s message reflected something of Jesus’ own view of the Bible. Now, a few points are worth mentioning. 1., If you don’t claim to follow Jesus, you still need to know that he had his own views and understanding about the Bible itself. 2., Jesus, most likely, didn’t have a personal copy of the Bible (his Bible were scrolls of the Old Testament and they were housed in the synagogues of the day). 3., This blog will have nothing to do with canon formation or textual criticism (if you don’t know what those are, then probably all the better…).

Now, we said that Jesus’ own view of the OT was that all of it pointed to him. This was neither a show of megalomania nor one of brash hubris. Through his life and teaching, he actually validated what the entirety of his Bible “pointed towards.”

A very important point arises at this point (Dang it! Same word twice, in one sentence, each with a different sense. I hear you coming, Mrs. Cramer). We said that the OT pointed forward to a coming Messiah, but what sort of Messiah would he be? This question is HUGE!!! Was he going to be a great moral guru? A social activist? A dude who tossed-out pithy platitudes, hoping that some would listen? Or, something else altogether? This question seems to be of the utmost importance (i.e., though the OT pointed to a Messiah, what kind of Messiah would he be? Moreover, how would he, in fact, prove this Messiah-ship?). It seems to me that that the type of Rescuer (read: Messiah) that the OT points towards is one who would die and his death (and subsequent resurrection) would “set the world” right.

In what ways do you see is as significant that we get the correct type of Messiah? Thanks for your thoughts…

--Ryan