My buddy Mike Buchanan cowrote a great independent film called The Fat Boy Chronicles, and they put a quote of mine in the trailer! OK, so I’m not exactly Roger Ebert, but I’m thrilled to help them out. It’s a great story that I’ve blogged about before. Check out the new trailer here.
The cover of the book upon which the movie was based
Jesus lived a life in three dimensions: Up, Out and In. In today’s message Arnold Schwarzenneger helps us learn how to do the same. Based on Mark 1:29-39.
Podcast: Download
Who are your role models? Who are the people you model your life after? Who are you trying to be like? Listen to this sermon podcast and find out who is the only person we should model our lives after. From Mark 1:29-34.
Podcast: Download
All of us struggle to hear God. Today we hear a story about how we can get what we all want: God’s voice speaking in our lives. Based on 1st Samuel 3:1-21.
Podcast: Download
Joy does not come from the absence of darkness. It comes from God’s light shining in the darkness, and the darkness not being able to overcome it. God will always come! Based on the story of the three wise men from Matthew 2:1-12.
Podcast: Download
Payback Movie Poster
My wife hates “Payback,” which released in 1999 and starred Mel Gibson. And when I say “hate,” in this case it is not too strong a word. I really think she would rather go to the dentist than watch it, and she hates going to the dentist more than most people. That’s how much she hates “Payback.”
Today, though, I was reminded of why I love it. The kids are watching an episode of “Power Rangers R.P.M.,” and a new character was just introduced. You’ve seen this character a hundred times before- the brooding ‘lone wolf’ bad boy who reluctantly joins the team and becomes a hero. It’s a common archetype because it works so well; we love heroes who used to be scoundrels, such as Han Solo, who may have been more popular than boy scout Luke Skywalker. We like our good guys, but we like them more when they are a little bad.
The reason I love “Payback” is because Mel Gibson’s character is a bad guy who stays bad. Time after time he has the chance to be nice, to do the right thing, and he keeps on being a bad guy. On and on it goes until finally you realize “Huh. He really is a jerk.” It’s so refreshing and fun to watch that I can’t understand anyone not liking in. In fact, I’m going to see if it’s on Netflix streaming. I’m tired to “bad good guys.” I’m in the mood for a real bad guy.
One of my favorite symbols of Christmas is the nativity set. Over the years I have learned a lot about Christmas, and God’s enduring presence with us, from what I’ve done, and failed to do, with the nativity sets in my life. In this message I share some of those moments and what I have discovered to be the true meaning of Christmas.
My parent's nativity set, and mine, both look a lot like this
Podcast: Download
Last weekend Chickpastor and I took our kids to see Santa. Before our kid’s turn I slid off to the side to get into position for pictures. While I was standing there, waiting and trying not to be noticed, I got to hear what several kids asked for for Christmas. It was nothing exceptional, just the usual: toys and games.
Yesterday, Chickpastor and I were at our children’s school for their presentations on what they had been studying. The hallway walls were covered with drawings, maps, pictures and answers to a wide range of questions. We had some free time to browse, and came to a section where four kindergarteners had answered the question “Why Do I Love America?” While this is a school which has no racial majority, a third of the student’s parents are immigrants, and I suspect that these answers were written by the children of immigrants. Here are the four answers:
Four answers to the question "Why I Love America"
These are things we take for granted every day. Fancy toys, clean water, freedom from discrimination and food are all things we most Americans haven’t had to worry about for so long that when it is our turn to sit on Santa’s lap, we ask for frivolities like iPads and HDTVs and the third season of Dexter on DVD. As these children showed us, not everyone in our world is so fortunate. Many children have toys that are anything but fancy. There are 884 million people in the world without access to clean water, and over three million people die each year from a water related disease. A woman was arrested in May in Saudi Arabia for driving. One in every seven people are undernourished.
At Christmastime it is so easy to focus on iPads and HDTVs and to forget that there are real people in real places dealing with life and death problems every day. When you get your chance to sit on Santa’s lap, I hope you will remember these children and their stories. If you want to buy them something instead of getting cousin Eddie another season of Dexter, here’s some places that can help:
Lutheran World Relief Water Projects
If they haven’t started coming already, the boxes will start coming soon. Before too long our trash bins will be filled with boxes of all shapes and sizes. Gifts aren’t the only things we put in boxes, though. In this message we explore the boxes we try to put God and others in and how to let God be God this Christmas. Based on the arrival of John the Baptist in John 1:19-28
Podcast: Download
At least he could play drums.
Last year my wife and I were talking about how Christmas is weird because it’s Jesus’ birthday but we get presents for everyone but him. As she described in her blog, it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to us. Nobody would be thrilled if that was how our families celebrated our birthday, but we all do it to Jesus every year. It just didn’t seem right. So, we wondered, what would Jesus want for his birthday? Not a present, surely.
So…what? What could we give Jesus on his birthday?
The best thing we could think of was to give to the poor. That, we thought, is what Jesus would want for his birthday. So we started researching charities and programs. I thought picking one would be easy, but there is a lot of great work being done and it took a little research to find the one we liked the best. Eventually, we settled on the Lutheran World Relief Water Program (it’s tough to go wrong with clean water). Once we had that decided, the only question left was: how much?
That’s where things got interesting.
I still remember looking at each other when we both realized that if we were going to really make Christmas more about giving to Jesus than to others, then we had to give as much to him as we did to everyone else. Not to anyone else- to everyone else. Combined. We had to give as much to Jesus as we did to everyone else combined. We just had to. We already knew how much we typically spend on Christmas, so we took that amount and gave that much to the LWR Water Project.
The result was that we had our most spiritual Christmas ever. It felt great. For years I had known somewhere in my soul that the way I was celebrating Christmas wasn’t right. Unfortunately, I had no idea what to do about it. There was only one way. Now I’ve found a different way, but it didn’t feel awkward or strange. It didn’t feel like I was trying something new. Instead, it felt like when I grew my first garden. I felt connected to God in a soulful, “you were made for this” way. I was returning to who I was made to be, even though I had never been that person before. It was so great, so wonderful, that we are doing it again this year, only this time we plan on giving more to Jesus than to other people. If giving as much felt so good, I can’t wait to find out how much better more will feel!
I invite you to join us this year. Give as much to Jesus as you do to your friends, family and coworkers. Better yet, give more to Jesus than you give to them! Find a charity or program that you like and go for it. I’m certain it will be your most spiritual Christmas ever.
The Lutheran World Relief Water Project is a good choice, but there are plenty of other options
