Living Beyond the Mundane

I just got back from attending my oldest's college graduation, moving her out of her apartment, and bringing her (and most of her stuff!) home for a few months. Being the first of its kind for me, it was really quite an experience. I mean, her high school graduation was something very special (as will be her sister's in just a few weeks), but the college thing was very different. The fact that she graduated from my (and my wife's) alma mater added its own twist, too. When your child graduates from high school, there is a sense that he/she has completed childhood and is entering the realm of adulthood. College graduation, though, means that the entering is over and your "child" is now, officially, an adult. Hard as that may be to realize, at least at times, that's the way your child/adult sees it, and even more revealing, it's the way the world sees things as well.

Anyway, the commencement speaker was the Chairman of the Division of Music at the university. As a graduate of that department, I was particularly pleased to know he would be the speaker. And as you might expect, being a musician, his address was full of fun and creativity and meaning, but it was not the laser-focused oratory you might expect from, say, a science or business professor. Being the musician that I am, though, it was right up my alley!

Dr. James Vernon, Chairman of the Division of Music at Oklahoma Baptist University spoke on "Living Beyond the Mundane." He and a friend have an ongoing discussion regarding how much of life is simply mundane rather than full of richness, meaning and significance. Vernon contends that all of life should be full of meaning, and he used an operatic illustration to make his point. It may have been the fact that my emotions were pretty raw from exhaustion and the realization that my first-born is now an adult, but the recording of Franco Corelli's performance of an aria from Puccini's Turandot that Vernon shared at the end of his remarks literally brought me to tears.

What does opera have to do with "living beyond the mundane" you may ask? Besides the details of the plot (too lengthy to share here), Corelli overcame incredible obstacles (family background, discouragement from leading musicians, incredible stage fright, etc.) to become the leading tenor of his day. He could, and maybe in some respects should, have ended-up leading a very different, much more mundane, life. However, he chose to chart a course that took him to stardom and a legacy that impacts the world of music to this day. We have a similar choice.

Watching my oldest walk across the platform and officially enter the realm of full-fledged adulthood brought a wide spectrum of emotions--pride, a sense of finishing and of new beginning, a sense of urgency for the time I have left with my other two daughters, a renewed realization of my own stage in life. As I look back on the days that have brought us to this point, I hope I chose to live enough of them beyond the mundane, realizing, at least in hindsight, the significance of every moment of every day. And as I look forward to the future, I do so with a renewed sense of the importance of living it beyond the mundane, infusing every possible moment with richness and meaning. From the simple, relaxed times to the poignant and powerful moments, I am reminded that every second has the chance to be significant in its own way.

Dr. Vernon is far too young to have been teaching during my days at OBU, but I'm glad to know he's there as my middle daughter heads out there (to major in music) this fall. Thanks for the reminder Doctor V!

Lord, break me

Sitting in staff meeting this morning, our pastor challenged us to think about the upcoming Easter celebration a little more deeply than we might. As Todd pointed out, we have the luxury of hindsight when we think about Easter. Unlike those there at the scene, we know, as Max Lucado put it, "Sunday's coming!"

The apostles and other contemporary followers of Jesus, many of whom had given up their livelihoods and everything else to follow Him, knew only that everything they had expected, everything that they had hoped for, had just come to a crashing halt. The One who was going to lead them to something much more (though they weren't really clear on just what or where it was), had just been humiliated, tortured, killed and buried. Something had apparently gone terribly, terribly wrong.

You may have heard it said that it's in our greatest brokeness that God does His mightiest work. Those followers of the Messiah were certainly broken. Their experience pretty much defines brokeness. It was in that brokeness, though, that God did His most amazing work! He took them back to the tomb, but the tomb was empty!

The passion and enthusiasm of those broken, but restored, men and women humbles me. I don't know about you, but even with the benefit of seeing the suffering and death of Christ through the lens of the resurrection, I rarely even approach the whole-hearted, sold-out, totally committed passion of those earliest followers. Is it because I haven't allowed Him to truly break me the way He desires? The way they were broken as that terrible Friday trudged into Saturday, and Saturday into another day without Him?

Lord, break me as you would choose, and fill me with the passion of your Son. Amen.

What a Shock!

I really didn't think they'd have the guts...the Hollywood elite, that is. I mean, I totally expected them to choose Brokeback Mountain as picture of the year. I really didn't think they had the guts NOT to.

Despite all the talk, Brokeback was hardly the "courageous" or "breakout" work it was touted to be. IMHO, it was simply one filmaker's attempt to push his own worldview and to seize on the publicity he knew it would generate to boost ticket sales. On those two counts, though, it was something of a success. As for changing mainstream values, it was a total flop.

Charles Colson, in his March 3 Breakpoint column/broadcast, captured it very well. I include it here for you (in its entirety, per copyright). Blessings!
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If all goes as expected at this Sunday’s Academy Awards, Brokeback Mountain will win in the “Best Picture,” “Best Director,” and perhaps even “Best Actor” categories. Even if it doesn’t do as well as expected, the film is already being hailed as a “breakout” event, a kind of cultural watershed of sorts—which it almost certainly is not.

By “breakout,” I mean the idea, most famously advanced by New York Times columnist Frank Rich, that the movie would do well in the “heartland,” and that this, in turn, would signal an increased acceptance of same-sex relationships.
As USA Today summarized it, the film would change “how Hollywood portrays gay characters [and] also how gay men and lesbians are accepted by mainstream America.”

Well, it turns out that the reports of a breakout were greatly exaggerated. While admittedly, Brokeback did well at the box office, its audience was exactly whom you would have predicted all along: people in the Northeast and on the West Coast. The film made far more money in Canada than in the Great Plains or the Rocky Mountain states.

There’s nothing new in this pattern. As Mickey Kaus of Slate pointed out, it’s the same pattern we saw with Fahrenheit 9/11, the anti-Bush documentary. Then, as now, reports about the film’s alleged popularity in middle-America were treated as harbingers of a cultural shift. Then, as now, these reports were shown to be equal parts wishful thinking, spin, and propaganda.
But even if we concede that Brokeback’s $70 million-plus at the box office “is a sign of American mainstream status,” we are still left with another question. “What is $288 million or even . . . $370 million” a sign of?

This question was posed by columnist Terry Mattingly. The numbers he’s citing are the comparable box-office takes for The Chronicles of Narnia and The Passion of the Christ, respectively. These films not only made many times what Brokeback did, they did well in every part of the country. By Rich and company’s logic, this would place them and their Christian messages squarely in the “mainstream.” But don’t hold your breath waiting for such an acknowledgment.

The truth is that, as Mattingly writes, “Brokeback Mountain is a solid, artistic niche movie for the hard left in American life.” This group is “dominated by Oscar voters and Hollywood’s most loyal supporters in blue zip codes.”
The insular worldview of this group is why the “Best Picture” nominees are, as the Los Angeles Times put it, “five movies most people haven’t seen.” This year’s Oscars are a celebration of one particular group’s ideals and tell us little about what constitutes mainstream American attitudes.

That’s why we need to ask ourselves another of Mattingly’s questions: Who will make commercially successful movies that “force Hollywood people to grit their teeth when it comes time for the Oscar voting?”

For Mattingly, whose new book Pop Goes Religion looks at the relationship between faith and popular culture, the obvious answer is “Christians.” If we can learn how to make good films—and we’re beginning to do so—that people will want to see, we could then witness a real breakout: one that leads away from Hollywood’s insular worldview and in a much more positive direction.

For further reading and information:
Today’s BreakPoint offer: Finding God in the Movies: 33 Films of Reel Faith by Robert K. Johnston and Catherine Barsotti.
Terry Mattingly, “American Tribes Go to Different Movies,” Get Religion, 1 March 2006.
Terry Mattingly, Pop Goes Religion: Faith in Popular Culture (W Publishing, 2005).
Scott Bowles, “‘Brokeback Mountain’: Milestone or movie of the moment?” USA Today, 21 February 2006.
Mickey Kaus, “Stix Nix Crix Pix!: Plus—The NYT’s Sacred Rattner,” Slate, 22 February 2006.
Mary McNamara, “5 Films with Depth, if Not Breadth,” Los Angeles Times, 1 February 2006.
Rod Dreher, “The Real Message in Brokeback,” Dallas Morning News, 29 December 2005.
Chad Thompson, “Breathing Humanity into Brokeback,” Townhall.com, 31 January 2006.
Regis Nicoll, “On-Screen Romance: Love, from Casablanca to Brokeback,” BreakPoint Online, 7 February 2006.
Alex Wainer, “Light of the World, Camera, Action: Behind the Screen: Hollywood Insiders on Faith, Film, and Culture,” BreakPoint Online, 6 January 2006.

What are they thinking?

Does anybody besides me have a hard time understanding what's been going on in several Muslim countries over the last few weeks? I mean, I understand that the publication of the cartoons about Mohammed goes against their faith. I've seen some things published in our media that offend my faith, too. But rioting, destruction, killing? The level of anger seems, to me, to far exceed the scale of the offense. It certainly does nothing to convince me of the merit of their cause. If anything, were I a prospective convert (which I certainly am not), I would be less inclined toward their beliefs.

As I pondered some of this, my first thought was, "I'm so glad my faith doesn't show itself in that same angry, hateful way we're seeing there." But...then it dawned on me that some people don't see Christians as much different than that. Granted, we are consistently misrepresented in the media, in particular, and our society, in general. Too often, though, those mischaracterizations are based on at least an element of fact. Bombings and angry demonstrations are wrong and ineffective whether in the cause of Mohammed or Christianity (think abortion clinics before you say that bombs have never been employed in the name of Christ).

May we all use these recent events as an opportunity to reflect on the image of Christ we show to the world. While I've never gone so far as some, I must plead "Guilty" to the charge of misrepresenting my Savior by the way I sometimes treat others. Maybe my actions would suggest I understand what's been going on a little better than I'd like to admit--or even realize. Fortunately, I serve a God who forgives, rather than demands, actions such as these we've seen recently. May my actions lead people to Him rather than point them away.

Sunday, Feb. 12 Weather Update

It was a difficult decision, but we have cancelled all services and activities for Sunday, February 12. Last night we went into "snow mode" and cancelled the 8:30 and 9:45 services as well as small groups. But given the additional snow overnight, as well as the continued snowfall and gusty winds this morning, we made the decision to cancel the 11:00 service as well.

Stay warm!

Bill

Do I have to change, too?

--copied from another church's website

"There is no one biblical form for worship. In the Bible, worship included the very formal expressions of worship in the tabernacle and temple as well as very celebratory and spontaneous worship of the people in various situations. The annual feasts and celebrations serve as a good example. While there were strong traditions concerning what was done and how it was done, there was great diversity from one feast to the other. There was no form that dominated every worship experience. The New Testament Church clearly demonstrated a process of growth and diversity in corporate worship from the Synagogue to house churches to the worship in churches of several thousand, such as the church in Jerusalem. Over and over again God states that He doesn't want form; He wants our hearts. To obey is better than sacrifice. The various forms have more to do with church traditions and culture than biblical mandates.

The elements of worship (Praise, Prayer, Examination, Confession, Giving, Scripture Reading, Preaching, Witness/Testimony and Affirmation of Truth) have strong biblical support. The way those elements are included in a worship service (in other words, the form) can be very diverse. Our task...is to determine a form that is most meaningful to our congregation. Because people and culture are constantly changing, the form will also be constantly changing. There is clear evidence in both the Old and New Testament that forms changed as people and culture changed. "
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What are your thoughts?

Looking Forward to Sunday!

I don't know about you, but I'm really looking forward to this Sunday! I can't wait to get our choir back up there leading worship. Our song for this week, From a Sincere Heart, sounded good Wednesday night, and I know it'll sound even better Sunday! Thanks to Mike Tyer for the solo and to Donna Clark and Dawn Dixon for the praise team parts.

In case you missed it, I shared some more of Rick Muchow's (Worship Pastor at Rick Warren's church, Saddleback Community Church, in CA) comments. They included...

Beautiful music is great, but if you're worried about it then it can be a distraction. The most important thing is to prepare your heart...Prepare...spiritually...then after that work on the notes.

Let me encourage you to come Sunday with your heart prepared for worship. Continue to prepare your heart for worship and your voice for praise--reread Colossians 3:12-17 and listen to your CD. God will use all of it to glorify Himself as we gather for worship this Sunday.

See you there!