The Burr in the Burbs

I was vacationing along Lake Michigan at the historic Lakeside Inn with my family when my wife and I both finished the novels we were reading at the same time.  Mine was a pulpy thriller by Robert Bloch (The Scarf) that Julie naturally had no interest in.  But as she told me about the story she’d just put down by Haven Kimmel, I knew I had to read it next.

The Solace of Leaving Early was published in 2002.  It’s what I would call a theological drama.  There are two protagonists: a female graduate student who walked out of her oral exams and went home to rural Indiana and a local small church pastor who agonizes over his sermons while he gardens.  Both characters have heads swimming with questions about the meaning of life and death and faith.  Their paths cross when one of the young woman’s childhood friends and the pastor’s parishoners dies under tragic circumstances.

If you’ve ever pondered Alfred North Whitehead‘s take on grief, or Kierkegaard‘s definition of faith, then you and author Haven Kimmel have something in common.  But even if those particular questions haven’t occurred to you, undoubtedly you have been affected by a painful loss and Solace knows just where you’re coming from.  Kimmel’s characters are quirky and insightful.  The story should be a downer, but it’s not and I couldn’t stop reading it once I got going.

I’ve always liked Nicolas Cage.  He’s very talented but I must say that his career has many highs and lows.  Our family really liked the National Treasure pics.  2007′s Ghost Rider was really low.  But his latest film, Knowing, is thankfully on the higher end of the spectrum.  Not that it’s incredibly original.  Just another supernatural, sci-fi,  horror, thriller with scary children at the center.  I don’t think it lasted long in the theaters.  Here is a link to the trailer if you don’t remember hearing about it.  But don’t watch the preview if you don’t want major plot elements to be spoiled for you.

Without getting too detailed, the story begins in 1959 at an elementary school celebrating its grand opening by assembling and burying a time capsule to be opened fifty years hence.  The children are assigned to draw pictures of what they imagine the future to look like.  Along with the predictable crayon masterpieces of rocket-ships and robots, one spooky little girl, Lucinda, turns in a page full of numbers.  Most of the children think of the future only in terms of technological progress but Lucinda is coming from a different perspective entirely.  Just how different will be revealed.

Skipping to today, Cage is a widowed father who teaches astrophysics at MIT and ponders philosophical questions such as: Is there any purpose to the universe or is everything merely random?  On the fiftieth anniversary of his son’s school, they open the time capsule and distribute the contents to the kids.  Cage’s son gets Lucinda’s page full of digits.  Things start to get creepy when Cage begins to notice order in the seemingly random numbers.

Cage plays a man of science who has lost his religious faith.  He doesn’t believe in things like heaven and God, even though his own father is a pastor.  But his reliance on reason is shaken when it appears that Lucinda’s numbers are prophetic in nature.  And they seem to foretell disasters over the course of the fifty years and even into the near future.

It is usually the case that true prophets are thought to be mad or worse.  And maybe sometimes they are.  One man’s madness is another man’s enlightenment.  Cage’s scientist thinks he might be going mad too, when his credo (“s*** just happens“) is brought face to face with an obvious higher intelligence that orders events.

There’s more to tell but I’ll let you be surprised.  Many viewers will see the film as an affirmation of religious belief.  Others might point out that the film could suggest a natural explanation for the looming Higher Power.

One of the values of engaging with stories is that they tell you so much about the storytellers.  Let it be known that I was not therefore terribly surprised when I learned from Peter Chattaway that the company which owns the film is called Ezekiel Films and one of the screenwriters is a Christian.

…must come down.”  There is a movie, new to DVD, that you may be interested in checking out called What Goes Up.  Admittedly, most critics gave it a poor review.  But what do they know?

Like all good stories, this movie asks some intriguing questions.

The film is about heroism.  Why do we need heroes?  And what makes a true hero anyway?  No simplistic answers here.  People are never all good or all bad.  Each one of us has the capability of doing something horrendously evil or amazingly good at any given moment.  We idolize our heroes, putting them up on pedestals.  But people are always more complicated and contradictory.  Bad people sometimes do good things.  And good people often do bad things.  Sometimes people do something wonderful even while in the midst of being bad, and  vice versa.  Don’t mistake complex and textured character development for moral relativism here.

This movie is about the shallowness of hero worship and the need for honest relationships based on love and long-suffering.  Understanding human nature is confusing and difficult.  Things are seldom what they seem.  People are like icebergs.  What you see is only the tip.  It may sparkle in the sunshine, but there is a hulking mass below the surface ready to sink the Titanic if given half a chance.

Remember that what goes up, must eventually come down and that there is a cloud in front of every silver lining.

What if someone told the story of the Prodigal Son with an inventive twist? The story of the Prodigal Father. What would that look like?

In 2005, the masterful German director Wim Wenders, well known for the fabulous Wings of Desire, gave us Don’t Come Knocking starring Sam Shepard. The story was, in fact, written by actor Shepard.

Don’t Come Knocking is the story of Howard Spence, famous movie western star, who in late middle age realizes that he’s squandered his life on boozing, womanizing and whatnot. Seeking some form of redemption or inner peace, he sets off on a journey to reconnect with family and two adult children he never knew.

One of the adult children, a daughter who is named Sky and played by Canadian gem Sarah Polley, has gone to the place where her father was last seen to stand watch for his return.

The other child, a rebellious alt country musician named Earl, doesn’t want to ever seen his father and wishes he were dead.

Howard Spence is wrung out by years of wild and wanton living. He goes to the nearest thing he has for a home looking for . . . he’s not exactly sure what he is looking for at first. Forgiveness? Reconciliation? He knows he’s not worthy to be called anyone’s dad or husband. What he finds is not what he expected, but is better in every way.

I have a thirteen year old son who is interested in film-making and has begun directing and producing his own homemade digital masterpieces. I told him he should watch this movie if only for what he calls the “camera-ology.”

Tenderly told, beautifully shot, exquisitely performed; don’t miss Don’t Come Knocking.

photo credit: jae michie

Remember the Tom Cruise flick, Minority Report?  It was based on the classic story by Philip K. Dick.   Set in the near future, the police were able to detect future crimes and stop them from happening.  The BBC will soon air a new series with a similar premise called Paradox. It actually sounds quite promising.

The lead director of the series, Simon Cellan Jones, said the series “will leave the audience asking themselves dark, complicated questions about fate, the future and who controls it.”

Read the BBC story here.

Who controls the future?  That is a very penetrating question.  All people are anxious about what tomorrow brings.  There is only One who is worthy to open the seal to the future.  And that is the Lamb who was slain (Rev. 5).  We can rest knowing our future days are in God’s hand.

Excited about the soon to premiere new Star Trek flic?  Check out this perceptive article by Steve Daly in Newsweek.  When the short-lived series first hit the airwaves in 1966, the Cold War war was angrily blazing away.  But produce Gene Roddenberry broke the mold with his (mostly) optimistic view of the future.  The general thrust of the science fiction to come out of the 50s and 60s was generated by fear.  Fear of the bomb.  Fear of communists.  Fear of spies.  Fear of desegregation.  And so forth.  Giant ants, spawned by nuclear mishaps, were attacking people.  Well camouflaged pod people were walking among us and destroying our way of life.  Space aliens were invading American cities.  Most books and films of the genre at that time were cautionary or envisioned a dystopic future for mankind.  Roddenberry challenged us to see a different possibility, a future earth where the races got along, working side-by-side, a future earth without war or poverty or swine flu pandemics.  I said earlier that he was “mostly” optimistic because the dread of the other was still evident in the episodes which encounter extraterrestrial hostiles.  The Romulans and the Klingons were probably supposed to reflect the Soviets.  Their swarthy appearance and overt bellicosity, however, makes me think of Islam.  As a Christian, I know that Roddenberry’s idealistic humanism was naive, but that doesn’t mean I cannot appreciate the important and meaningful way he impacted the culture with his ideas.

The newest incarnation of the franchise is expected by some to renew it and by others to betray it.  I know there are lots of regular Americans who have never liked sci-fi, fantasy, superheroes, horror, the more speculative type of literature.  If this upcoming film is just an interstellar car chase, just Die Hard set in space, it will be a blockbuster but will miss out on the opportunity to ponder bigger topics of human identity the genre, at its best, excels at.  Or I could be wrong and it might help to popularize and mainstream what we dweebs have long loved.

Concordia Lutheran High School , Fort Wayne, IN
April 22, 2009
Text: 1 Cor 12:12-20; John 15:1-8

Just to introduce myself: I am Pastor Scott Stiegemeyer.  I’m the Director of Admission at Concordia Theological Seminary.  I go all over the country talking to young men about becoming pastors and young women about becoming deaconesses, but that is not why I am here with you today.  I am here with you now to proclaim the good news of free salvation through Jesus Christ.

I understand that this is Fine Arts Week.  You are emphasizing the

importance of the fine arts: such as music, and painting and drawing and sculpture or graphic design, and poetry or drama or creative writing…

I also noticed, according to my Google calendar that today is Earth Day.  Many in our culture recognize this, not particularly from a Christian perspective.  Many in the green ecological movement are subject to various neo-pagan ideas about the earth and the place of human beings in the ecosystem.

As Christians, we can participate in these things in our own ways because we understand that God is the Creator of the planet and all that lives on it, everything from the mighty sequoia forest to the mold that grows in between the tiles in your bathroom.  Everything from the tiniest microbes that live their whole lives on particles of dust inside your pillow cases to you yourselves, young men and women, the pinnacle of God’s creative work.

God is the maker of all things, visible and invisible.  The earth and all that is in it belongs to the Lord.  We do not really own anything.  Not even our bodies truly belong to us.  We belong to God.  Everything we have is really a gift from God, or you might say, on loan from God.

God is a giver.  He gives us our bodies, our skills, our talents, our abilities and all of our resources.  Christians understands that with God as the creator and owner, we are merely just stewards or managers of the resources we possess.  That includes things like the forests and the seas and the soil beneath our feet.  It also includes our voices and hands, our minds and hearts.  We may use these things, but whatsoever you do, do all things to bring glory to God.

Just two weeks ago, in our churches and around the world, Christians

celebrated the most holy day of the year, the Queen of Feasts.

Easter, as you probably know, is the commemoration of the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  We believe that Jesus died on the cross, but that he literally and bodily came back to life again, arose and then ascended into heaven, where He sits at the right hand of the Father ruling and governing the universe.

The Christian story does not end there, of course.  We also believe Jesus will return and when He returns, He will judge the living and the dead.  If that happens a long time from now, and if you or I happen to be dead at the time of His return, He will raise you literally and bodily from the grave.  And all of us will be changed.

Now, I’m going to tie this in, you’ll see, to FINE ARTS WEEK and EARTH DAY, but first I need to make one other point.  And that point is that people today and people of all times have been concerned with death.  Understandably.  Death is really our number one problem.  Not the war in Iraq or the wobbly economy.  Those are big problems, but ultimately, the greatest problem we have is DEATH and the prospect of death.  Scientific study has shown that the death rate among living things is 100%.  All of us will encounter it.

The mythology of our popular culture tries to deal with the concept of death in weird and fanciful manners.  One of the most popular genres of entertainment for Americans your age is the horror genre.  And as I look at it, the horror genre is one of the few genres of entertainment that seriously wrestles with the hard question of what are we going to do about death.

My wife is an English professor and one of her favorite authors is Jane Austen.  You’ve probably heard of the classic, Pride and Prejudice. Well, now the big hit is this one: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance -Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!What do you think of that?

And here is another book I’ve been reading lately: Let the Right One In. It’s a best-selling Swedish vampire novel that was recently adapted into a critically acclaimed film.

In popular culture right now, especially for young adults, zombies and vampires are very in style.  Zombies are the living dead.  Vampires are the undead.  Think also of the Frankenstein story.  There you have science trying to overcome death with medicine and technology, to bring dead body parts back to life as a supreme man.  It always fails.  Our human attempts to conquer death will always fail.

God is the Creator.  His proper work is to create life and make it prosper and flourish.  It is not His proper work to kill or destroy.  Sin has caused that to happen in His otherwise good creation.  Like all the earth, we have been tainted with sin, polluted, if you will.

The Green movement teaches us to recycle.  Recycle your paper, your plastic, your metal good.  Recycling makes sense to me.  Then you can use a product once.  When it is all used up, you throw it away.  It gets recycled and then you can use it again.  And the circle goes on and on.

But God, as usual, has a better way.  Easter is not God’s ultimate recycling project.  A man lives, gets used up.  He dies, gets tossed away like garbage.  Then God recycles Him and He lives again and the circle goes on.  That is not the way it is with God.  When God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, it was not just a recycling.  It was a glorious transformation.  The life that comes after the resurrection will never wear out, it will never get used up.  Jesus will never need to be tossed away again.

The same thing that happened to Jesus, happens to you, for you.  Through your holy baptism, you have been united to Christ’s death and resurrection.  His resurrection power is now alive within you, which is just me saying that Jesus Christ is alive within you.  And though, yes, your current body and spirit will one day wear out, get used up and need to be planted into the ground.  But you, like Jesus, will rise with a glorious life that will never end.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

The human brain is a marvelous creation.  Very complex.  The most advanced scientists still have only one scintilla of an understanding of its workings.

One feature that has been long observed, and repeatedly supported, is that the two halves or lobes of the brain have different general functions.  The left side governs speech, logic, linear thinking.  It is analytic.  The right side of the brain is creative, empathetic and playful.  Clearly, every healthy person uses his whole brain.  But undeniable evidence exists that some people rely on one lobe more than the other and that people think about problems and scenarios differently depending on which lobe dominates, so to speak.

Daniel Pink‘s book, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, offers an intriguing theory on how the uniquenesses of right-brain thinking will pave the path for our society’s future advancement.  Contemporary western civilization is founded upon the industrial revolution.  Recent decades have been characterized as the Information Age.  These trends are strongly left-brained.

The challenge arises because we are entering a period when many left-brain oriented tasks and jobs can be done by computers and/or less expensive labor overseas.  Daniel Pink posits that the future success of America depends on our ability to adapt and embrace the benefits that right-brain thinking offers, what he calls high concept or high touch.  Right-brain thinking will never replace left-brain thinking.  He is only making the point that the strengths of logical linear thinking are no longer sufficient to sustain us as an economy or a culture.

I came across this blog post called 32 Sci-Fi Novels You Should Read.  I’ve heard of almost all of them and I’ve read fourteen of them.  Science Fiction is not my favorite genre, but I try to read three or four good sci-fi books a year.  I’m behind schedule for 2008, having only read 2001: A Space Odyssey in July.

It seems to me that, other than the heritage of Gene Roddenberry, most science fiction is pessimistic, or at least skeptical, regarding the limits of science and technology.  The best of the genre is more than childish adventures of robots and space aliens.  It ponders the nature of man, and his ability to save himself.

One of the legacies of the so-called Enlightenment is a thoroughgoing optimism about human nature.  Add the progressivism introduced by Charles Darwin, mid 19th century, the belief that everything is evolving, that is, getting better and better through time and you have the philosophical basis for a sci-fi tale.  What will life be like in the future?  Utopian visions, at least in literature, seem to be far outnumbered by dystopic ones.  The limits of science and technology and the hubris of man are common themes.  In this, I usually find much science fiction more realistic than not.

photo credit: Don Solo

It’s not common to find outspokenly pro-life celebrities.  I can only think of a few at this hour of the morning.  Mel Gibson and Patricia Heaton come to mind.  Who am I missing?

Now I can add a third.  There’s a cool young Texas rock band called Flyleaf that I’ve enjoyed following the last three or four years.  I was already aware that the band members are committed Christians, though they do not write and market “Christian rock.”  They’re mainstream and successful which is not to say that their Christian belief does not work its way into their art.

Lead singer, Lacey Mosley, was recently asked about the presidential election.  She’s quoted: “I really have a strong anti-abortion stance. I don’t think I can vote for a president that’s for abortion. So that makes a big difference about where I’m gonna vote.”

Let’s just say that it takes certain courage for a young hip celebrity to be that upfront about opposing abortion.  Kudos to Lacey!

Check Flyleaf out at their site here, and buy some tunes.