review of "Father, Son and Holy Guest Star"

"You can save a lot more souls with easy bake ovens than with THIS two-thousand year-old pill"- Timothy Lovejoy (Simpsons DABF02- season 13, episode 6)

I caught the simpsons this past sunday, and it was one i've already seen. But I LOVE it! not to mention how much i laughed at stuff like the saint who appeared to Father Sean before his conversion and called him a wanker and told him to "repent or sod off". There was also the priest and all the nuns who were ALL Irish for some reason, then the different afterlive's for protestants and catholics- starting with the protestants being all stuffy and the catholic heaven having hispanics cooking, italians and Irish- which ended with Marge wanting to talk to Jesus, who'd gone over to Catholic heaven and they all began riverdancing... I'm seriously thinking Catholic heaven is where I want to go- it's more lively and more fun (although try going to mass- it's so dry...)

I was also impressed with the way the priest dealt with lisa being a buddhist- he laughed and told her that lots of kids have imaginary friends.

Ok, well, on with the real meat of this... which has to do with the quote above. It seems like... Well, let me put it this way. Just because cool people are Christians doesn't mean Christianity is cool. Or just because Christians do "cool" things, that doesn't make Christianity legitimate! Case in point- they were trying to bribe Bart back to being a protestant again- they took him to a Christian teen festival- with an 80s band and paintball. Bart responded with something to the effect of "just because some old band plays the christian festival doesn't make it cool"... and then he sees the paintball and is enthralled...

it's a wonderful sequence. And I have posed for years that there are wonderful things to be learned from popular culture. And I love making connections like this. Luke blogged about this back when he was on blogger, but i don't think the post made it to his new site- but... Just because Mel Gibson is a Christian, does that make it cool? Christians seem to love to herald around their popular people- atheletes, actors, musicians, and more. It's like- we need to make our faith legitimate. Almost like- see, it must be cool cuz the '96 Green Bay Packers all go to bible study and Reggie White is a Christian... Jeff Gordon drives a car, and he's a Christian, too- that means it's great, right?

Christianity doesn't need popular people. Our faith is stronger than that! It doesn't require having cool people... And, oh yeah- just a reminder aobut the Christian past- the early church wasn't "cool" and didn't have celebrities on their side! It was a religion of the outcasts and it was hope for the hopeless... now it's like the country club- some kind of social status or symbol...

what's next, Christian video games? oh, wait... check this...

Things I don't miss

Rachel and I spent last sunday morning worshipping at the church I went to when I was in college. It was enjoyable- the worship was great, and as was almost always the case, I couldn't tell you what Dave preached about, but I thought it was good (for the most part). That was pretty common for me, for the most part. I paid attention, but if you asked me to tell you specifically what was a part of the sermon, i probably couldn't tell you. However, I always found myself relating different parts of the sermon to situations and conversations.

Anyway- I'm writing this as a reflection. You see, my church from when i was in college is a charismatic church. And although they are not as far out as some, they are certainly different than the church i worked at for the past year and a half. And I must say- some of that, i didn't miss. There were things that i have missed that I got while i was there, and a few things that i didn't miss.

Things I missed:

• People- I saw lots of friends there. There were a number of friends I saw, bunch that I talked to, and none of them have I seen recently- so it was good. And it was 2nd service, so there were less people that I normally would have hung out with- 1st service would have been packed with friends.

• Being prayed for- Fred and Pat Dupert came over to us when they saw me and they were happy to see me. They talked with us for a while, and shared with us how their son was in a similar situation to us. They prayed for us and... I miss having friends who would pray with us. I have no idea how many people actually pray for rachel and I, but I know one couple who HAS prayed for us already.

Things I didn't miss:

• Erin Barner yelling out in the service while shaking her head... And then again while she was praying with people afterward- it was... strangely familiar, relatively tame for what i'd experienced there, and still quite strange...

• the extreme keyboard focus of the music- Now, I love good piano, but... I could barely hear anything besides the drums and the keyboard. the bass was the next in the list, then... there was a second keyboard that I couldn't really hear, and wondered what he was playing anyway... A guitar player, who, last time I'd played with him, he wasn't that great, but looked better this time (it's been 2 years or more), but I couldn't hear him to save my life. And all the other insturments, not to mention the 4 background singers who couldn't be heard...

i don't really know what else..

Beach

Last weekend Rachel and I went on our first weekend away since our honeymoon in the middle of January. We went to the beach- Ocean City MD for friday night, and then we stayed at Rehoboth DE on saturday. it was a nice relaxing weekend away made possible because our landlord was able to rent our apartment out earlier than expected. Hallelujah for the little things, but I'm still really bummed about being out of work, and although i'm dedicating a good amount of time looking for a new church, it's a lot of playing the waiting game, which is... tough.

anyway- keep us in your prayers. we're living with Rachel's parents, which is good for our budget.

can you tell we got a little sun on the beach saturday morning?

lessening of posts

due to the recent circumstances of life- particularly losing my job and moving in with my in-laws until i find a new church, i am not on the interent daily at my job through high speed and/or wireless connection. Because of this, my blogging will decrease most likely until a later, unknown date. Although i could still connect through a neighbors wireless connection, i prefer not to do that as much and must do so with the laptop. and though my pc can connect through the phone line, i prefer not to tie up a phone line that is not my own... anyway. anyone who wants, feel free to e-mail me- post a response and i'll give you my e-mail addy... I will be looking at comments left, so... btw- thanks to holly sue for leaving a comment for me- it made my day... (sorta)

blessings
Reid