Yeezus vs. Jesus

As usual I’m a little behind the game in celebrity news.  A few weeks ago it was reported by the man himself – Kanye West – that he was begging Mark Zuckerburg [facebook] and Larry Page [google] for 1 billion dollars to pay off his debts of *gulp* $53m.

It was a brash move which induced much eye rolling the world over but the more I pondered it the more I liked it!  I liked Kanye!  Whaaaa?  If you haven’t clicked away yet shaking your head slowly at the degeneration of yet another blog then allow me to explain…

Remember that story Jesus told about the prodigal son?  You know the one about the son who took his inheritance, blew it on fast living and came back to the father on his knees for forgiveness [and further support] whilst the other son despised his boldness and the father’s grace?  I think in the case of Kanye we were all too quick to be elder son, looking down our noses at Kanye’s begging instead of seeing our own position in the cosmos.

Because as Christians we must identify with Kanye on some level; for we are all as Luther would say “…beggars, this is true”.  Meaning that all we can do is come to God with empty hands of faith, hoping to receive his grace and mercy.  And the good news is that he is ready and will fill those hands with love and forgiveness and daily bread.

I doubt that Kanye will receive much from Mark or Larry but I hope that one day he also receives an inheritance without measure from our Lord Jesus.

The mystery of the John 3:16 placard

I was first introduced to WWF in my pre-teen years by my cousin Mark.  He also introduced me to Michael Jackson’s Bad album so it must be noted that he’s a decent bloke.  I had heard the boys at school discussing WWF at length but had largely ignored their fanboy fervour as I believed myself to be far superior to such nonsense.  Well, thanks to me Cuz I now had a secret love.  Was it the spandex outfits?  The outrageous makeup?  The mania of the stadium?  The over the top spectacle?  The fact that my book-loving cultured parents would not approve? Answer = D: all of the above.

Undefeated

Today we start with the people of Israel; with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  They live their lives and they are given the promises of God: you will be a great nation, you will have the land of Canaan and you will have an offspring who will bless the nations.  Knowing all of this; that God has chosen them for his purposes and has made promises to them which he will keep; will that change them?  Well, sort of.  But mostly the book of Genesis is the story of the people of God not trusting in God and His promises, of them going after their own desires and making a mess of things.  And of God bringing them back to himself again. 

Beware your farts will find you out

We at Cross-Eyed are not above appealing to the lowest common denominator and no greater example of this scraping the barrel is fart jokes.  Watch the video below; it’s short and it’s totally not true (I think), but for the purposes of this post, let’s assume that it is true.  So suspend your disbelief…

The Man in the Blue Jacket

One of the many good things about holidays is finally having the time to watch movies you’ve not had time to watch during the year.  I’ve just finished watching a documentary about Bill Cunningham.  He is the original street style fashion blogger.  He’s worked for many of the major players in the fashion press, pioneering the modern style of fashion photography and influencing many of the major fashion trends of the last 20 years.

After seeing the documentary and learning about his character what amazed me was that he agreed to do it at all!  He was so humble, so self-deprecating that he did not enjoy the process of being so exposed to the world.  The makers of the film had to drag information out of him to find out anything about him.  In fact he has devoted himself so entirely to his craft that there is sort of none of him left at all.  Many of the people who he photographs and even his closest colleagues knew virtually nothing about him.  They didn’t know his history or about his relationships (if any), what he does in his spare time.  He definitely seems like a very private guy.  I think if they had watched the documentary they would have found out more about him than they ever had seeing him face to face every day.  However they often said they didn’t ask; so don’t ask, don’t tell I guess!  And it maybe reflects the shallow nature of their relationship with him too.

But it also reflects the type of person Bill Cunningham is; that he is not interested in putting himself forward but more interested in putting other people in the spotlight.  It’s the nature of the photographer that your subject becomes all and the photographer is simply the vehicle through whom the subject shines.  And it seems wrong in a way that the photographer would become the centre of attention.  Bill lives by that philosophy and it is captured in the moment when he is honoured for his life’s work and yet spends the whole party taking photos of everyone there.

There is something pure about someone who is so interested in something outside themselves that they disappear into the background.  A verse came to mind “he emptied himself… humbled himself even to the point of death” People may criticize Bill with being obsessed with something as shallow and frivolous as fashion but there’s still something honourable about that way of living.  Therefore how much more honourable somone who empties himself for a cause much more noble; freeing captives, giving sight to the blind, giving good news to the poor, and this honour belongs to Christ.  He had all the glory on earth and in heaven.  It was rightfully his and he should have received all of the rewards that all creation could have lavished upon him yet he did not demand them from us but rather he emptied himself of glory and honour and became nothing for his subjects; for the objects of his desire,and became obsessed with redeeming us to the point of death; even death on across. 

 

And unlike Bill’s subjects who are beautiful and worthy of being captured and admired for their glamour and desirability; we are not worthy.  Yet Christ went after the things that were not desirable; the poor, the weak, the blind, the naked, the sinful, the filthy, the discarded, the humble things of this world and captured them in his sights. And made them beautiful.

Much ado about something

If you are a reader of internet jokes, memes or Facebook you may be familiar with the phrase “excited much?” “annoying much?”  Is the saying itself getting annoying much?  It got me thinking about the passage in the Bible where Jesus says “those who are forgiven much love much, and those who are forgiven little love little.”  Is Jesus saying that he forgives some people heaps and others not much, that his forgiveness is doled out unevenly?  Hmmm.  Thinking, thinking…

It’s like if someone steals your pencil.  You don’t need to forgive them much because it costs you very little to replace the pencil (the cost of the pencil is the cost you have to absorb yourself because you decide to forgive the other person, rather than getting them to pay for it).  And they will love you very little for forgiving them of that small debt.

But if they steal and wreck your car and you catch them and you don’t demand justice from them (buying you a new car) but forgive them of the debt and buy the new car yourself; they will probably love you a little bit more than they did before the car theft.

Let’s ramp it up a bit more:  If they steal and kill your child and you do not demand from them justice for that act (their own life for the life of the child) but choose to forgive them and absorb all the emotional cost yourself and spare their life; then they will love you a LOT more.  And that’s what Jesus is getting at in this account.  

God [Jesus] is the creator of the universe and as such deserves love and respect from his creation.  Any act of rebellion against himself or injury to one’s neighbour is disrespecting [sin] Him and his creation.  So every sin we commit against our fellow man is ultimately against God.  If you, like the Pharisee, do not think you have injured God by your thought, words or deeds then you will not think you need his forgiveness.  His forgiveness is like a pencil to you; a very little thing.

In contrast to the Pharisee’s pride we see the prostitute do something outrageous!  She falls to her knees, weeps, wiping his feet with her hair and anointing them with expensive oil.   Why does she do this crazy thing?  Because she realizes that her sins are many and consequently she deserves much punishment from God for them.  But she is spared!  She realizes that Jesus is the kind of God who does not get pleasure from punishing the wicked but rather seeks to forgive them, and to do that he had to absorb upon himself on the cross ALL the cost of all her (and our) sin that ever was.  Realizing this truth she loves him very much.  That selfless, willing sacrifice on her (and your) behalf is applied to, and given to, us freely.  Your life is spared for all eternity!  And not only that, but Jesus welcomes you into his family and treats you like a beloved child.

Forgiven much?  That’s totes amazeballs!

I melt everytime I watch Frozen

Here’s a question you may not have asked yourself lately – “What does Bo Giertz’s The Hammer of God and Disney’s Frozen have in common?”  Well lucky for you I’m here to give you the answer!  The thing they have in common is their low view of man [low anthropology].  In other words; the writers of both these works believe that it is hard for mankind to do good to their neighbours and care for themselves and easy for mankind to abuse their neighbours and become trapped in destructive habits which destroy themselves.  I guess you could sum it up in the phrase “I have a low view of Tracey because she is always getting drunk in the weekends” (for example).  The two works also share the opinion that we cannot free ourselves from our broken condition but that we need to be freed by another.  

AIM Pt 4: Blowing the lid on Santa

I’m gonna let you in on a secret and it might change your life forever…. If you don’t want Christmas spoiled for the rest of your life then don’t read on!  Here’s my earth shattering secret… hold onto your hat… send the children outside… because… Santa Claus is your… parents!!

Who wants to live forever?

You may not have seen the film or read the children’s book Tuck Everlasting.  It’s the story of a family who drink from a hidden spring of water in the woods which turns out to be the fountain of youth or the spring of eternal life.  They find out from drinking it that they will live on eternally at the age they drank the water, doomed to watch the world go on without them.  People that they love grow old and die and yet they stay the same.  

Unicyling for Jesus

After being booked for not cycling in the cycle lane, cyclist Casey Neistat proves (with great comic timing and enviable stunt work) that the law of the New York cycle lane “Thou shalt keep to the  cycle lane at all times” is completely unreasonable.  Casey believes that it is not just for the New York government to penalize people for breaking a law which cannot be kept.  And (depending on your view of God) it may or may not surprise you that Jesus acts very much like the New York government in his sermon on the mount. 

Watching a movie... nek minnit... blog post

I read this article on Mockingbird a while ago and the Thomas Cranmer quote resonated with me “what the heart loves, the will chooses, and the mind justifies.”  It reminded me of the film The Adjustment Bureau.

Congressman David Norris meets a woman unexpectedly in a men’s bathroom and falls in love with her.  He doesn’t see her again until a few months later when they bump into each other on a bus.  Nek Minnit his office is full of armed men and frozen colleagues.  He is taken to a secret location and discovers that his life has been meticulously planned out by a mysterious “chairman”. 

I wanna be a supermodel

Imagine you have walked into a café with a friend.  You glance around at the people at the other tables as you enter.  Some are mums with loud kids, there’s a group of men in suits having a meeting; others are quiet older women with books, or students with laptops.  These people are just like you and so you feel comfortable around them.  But how would you feel if everyone there was a supermodel?  If you are like me, you’d probably turn around and go to the café next door where you fit in, right?

If I feel that intimidated by people who are better than me; how much more should I be intimidated by the total perfection of God.  His perfection highlights my faults like a magnifying glass highlights a stain on a garment.  That’s bad news.  Now if one of the supermodels in the café got up and invited you to sit at her table you would be saved from the humiliation of awkwardly leaving.  Your attitude would shift from “well it’s nice for you that you’re incredibly beautiful” to “wow, what have I done to deserve such kindness from someone who is clearly better than me?”  In the same way Jesus embraced you when you clearly did not match up to God’s standard. 

You need to tow the line buddy

We live in an apartment complex with a shared driveway.  Unfortunately I got myself on the committee which involves boring meetings and making the rules for the use of the facilities.  Because the driveway has pretty tight access to the unit garages, the committee decided the driveway should be a no parking, towaway area.  Everyone was informed of the rules and we waited to see if the driveway would remain clear of cars.  Well, it didn’t (surprise, surprise) and then came my least favourite part of being on the committee – enforcing the law. 

something not so special

 

Have you heard of the Star Wars Holiday Special?  Don’t be ashamed if you haven’t, it’s a rare beast.  Several years ago my delightfully geeky husband found out about it and bought a DVD copy that someone had burned off an old VCR recording of the TV broadcast.  It wasn’t great quality but the quality of the production itself was even worse.  In fact it was sooooo bad that we couldn’t watch it all the way through.  We only made it to the end because we fast forwarded through much of it.  It was pretty much the worst TV I’ve ever seen and most geeks on the internet would agree.  

Basically it’s the story of Chewbacca and his family Christmas which isn’t Christmas at all, its happy earth day or something.  Songs, dances and general Christmas cheer abound.  Even Princess Leia joins in one of the musical numbers!  It’s really boring; like your average bad Christmas special.  Not really news at all.  But what’s interesting about it is that it seems that George Lucas went to some pains to make sure that it was never heard of again.  If it hadn’t been for the invention of the VCR recorder, the internet and someone’s good fortune at keeping their recording and then distributing it on the internet, it would have disappeared for good; securing George Lucas’s legendary reputation (let's not mention episodes 1-3 for the moment).  Sadly for George the internet exposes all shameful secrets/Christmas specials for all time.

OCH... or... ouch.

I'm one of those people who love reality TV.  Not the Treasure Islands, or The Voice's of TV land but the 'real' reality programmes.  Does that make me a reality TV snob?  Anyhoo... Motorway Patrol, Piha rescue, Border patrol, Obsessive Compulsive Hoarder; anything that exposes the strangeness of human nature really wets my whistle.

So I ended up having a late night last night thanks to the Obsessive Compulsive Hoarder.  I was fully expecting to be lightly entertained by some poor schmuck who'd filled up his house and then to go to bed safe in the knowledge I wasn't as schmucky as he was.  What I didn't expect was a profound illustration of Christ-likeness to suffering schmucks.

you will be saved through childbearing... huh?

Being a mother is a beautiful feeling.  Giving birth most certainly is not!  I recently gave birth to my second child and did it drug free (why???).  This momentary lapse in judgment resulted in my experiencing the most excruciating pain I have ever felt in my life.  Three hours into contractions, when they were so close I barely caught my breath between them, I found myself mentally cursing Eve.  Why did you do it Eve?  Why?

WHOOOOO AAAAM I?

Liberate is my latest fave blog.  It's run by Mr T (Tullian Tchividjian) and his ragtag gang of theologians.  One post explaining the Christian's life as both a sinner and a saint was particularly helpful to me.  I've posted a tidbit below but it's worth your while reading the whole article here.


"“Sinner” is an identity word and is misapplied if it’s used to name the Christian’s identity—their person. Before God, identity is not a both/and (sinner and righteous); it is an either/or (sinner or righteous). The basis of this difference is not anthropological (what I do or don’t do). It is strictly and solely Christological: to be in Christ is to be righteous before God.

Weakness trumps power?

Loki is a being from Asgard, a distant planet, and he craves power – power to rule the world!  Power he never had being the second (adopted) son of Odin, the king of Asgard.  So he comes to Earth to seize this power.  He quickly intimidates the everyday people into submission but what he doesn’t count on are a rag tag team of super heroes there to stop him; The Avengers.  Eventually he comes face to face with the Hulk in the office of Tony Stark aka Iron Man.  At the cusp of seizing power Loki makes the classic villains gaff of gloating that the Hulk can’t touch him, after all, he’s a god!  To which the Hulk replies by grabbing him and over arming him into the floor a few dozen times leaving him embedded in the concrete before striding out quipping “puny god”… the audience erupts into laughter.

Sin vs Grace

 Sin seems so close, so easy, so enjoyable,

It seems subtle and sensible when it is obvious and absurd,  

Its seems fulfilling and life giving yet is empty and dead,

We chase it and want it though it gives nothing back,

Lord God, through your Son give me grace now instead.

Grace is so free, so easy, so undeserved,

It is direction to a heart when a heart would chase sin,

It gives life and fulfillment when you’re empty and dead,

It need not be chased for it is a gift,

It is needed not wanted, for what could we give,

To merit Gods favor when we so treasure sin,

Lord God, through your Son I treasure grace now instead. 

  

that's Mister Pusskins to you

From the moment I saw Mr Pusskin’s grumpy face scowling at me from the bookstore shelf I knew it would be a good read!  I’m not sure if the author intended Mr Pusskins to be a modern retelling of the “Prodigal Son” parable but it sure fits the bill (minus the elder son).

**plot spoiler**

Mr Pusskins is a bad, bad cat.  Emily, his owner adores him but he hates her doting on him all the time and walks out.  Though the real world brings much freedom, it proves to be a harsher place than he imagined.  Lonely Mr Pusskins remembers his lovely owner and calls out to her for help and they live happily ever after…

Jesus tells the story of the “Prodigal Son” to answer the Pharisees accusation that he eats with all the filthy sinners.  The Pharisees reveal what they think about themselves by this accusation.  They believe that they are the good guys.  The only ones worthy of a holy man’s [Jesus] time.  They rightly understand that sinners deserve nothing good from God, but they wrongly believe that they are not sinners; they are the elder son.