We’re back from Prayer Retreat and it was good. I particularly remember a video presentation by Francis Chan from Catalyst…I will have to look him up – great speaker.

Today I had coffee with L. and afterward went back to his office. L. remembered a conversation we had a while back where I mentioned I saw Peter Gabriel in concert n Montreal in 2003. B. – a good friend from university hopped in his truck and drove up from Atlanta to visit us in Ottawa and announced he had bought tickets for the three of us to see Gabriel in Montreal – what a blast that was…the concert was opened by The Blind Boys of Alabama.

Anyhow, L. found a two cd official recording of the Montreal concert and gave it to me (thanks a load L!!!). I am ripping it into iTunes as we speak and soon it will be on my iPod…woot woot! As I type this I have listened to Solsbury Hill and am now in the midst of Sledgehammer…aweome stuff.

Disc One

———-

1. Red Rain

2. More Than This

3. Secret World

4. Games Without Frontiers

5. Mercy Street

6. Darkness

7. Digging in The Dirt

8. Don’t Give Up

9. The Tower That Ate People

10. Growing Up

Disc Two

———–

1. San Jacinto

2. Solsbury Hill

3. Sledgehammer

4. Signal To Noise

5. In Your Eyes

6. Come Talk To Me

7. Shock The Monkey

8. Biko

Well – after a pleasant and uneventful drive we made it to another district pastoral prayer retreat at Elkhorn Resort (http://www.elkhornresort.mb.ca). I am happy to report the obvious – this year I have internet access from our room.

Looking forward to the next few days together here. We’ll keep you posted! Ciao.

 

The full empty

cold bloodless moon

rises white in crowded nothing

 

unbeating

 

night’s dead heart

scrapes after the dusk

chases dawn’s robe

seeking life

just a touch to –

 

blaze, blaze, blaze

I have come to realize that my schedule, pretty much nulifies any advance planning. The most successful plans I have made lately have been exceptionally last minute…advance planning just doesn’t work for the time being. An example of a successful last minute plan unfolded tonight. I got a call from B. at 8:35 pm and within 20 minutes we were on the road to see the movie Cloverfield.

The movie clocks in at about 90 minutes and is presented as a video tape found by the US Military at Central Park. Essentially the movie is presented as amateur footage of a devastating attack on New York City by an enormous monster. The movie starts with footage of people at a party in midtown and follows four party goers as they attempt to escape the city all the while documenting the scenes of devastation.

The film is like a cross between The Blair Witch Project and an M. Night Shayalaman movie. Marketed clearly as a monster movie in the mould of Godzilla what the audience is presented with is a character driven story where the monster takes a back seat. The first part of the movie presents a group of apparently succesful young New Yorkers enjoying a party seemingly oblivious to anything more serious than the latest gossip. Essentially life seems no deeper than the latest sexual relationship.

What unfolds is a story of how tragedy focuses people on the deeper aspects of life – friendship, love, and sacrifice. In some ways the movie seems to be a critique of the kind of narcissistic culture that requires deep tragedy to shake its gaze away from the mirror to contemplate eternal things. There are obvious visual references to September 11, 2001 and an exploration of the senselessness of violence and our response to it.

In the end the movie may also be meant as a reminder to people to think about those few hours after the twin towers fell when thoughts were not so much on revenge as they were on the well-being of loved ones, the value of friendship and the nobility of sacrifice.

There are many people who are not pleased with the movie because it does not deliver the mindless monstrousness they were hoping for…ironically the message of the movie may have been meant primarily for them.

 

An MMORPG is a Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. I’ve been trying out a free one called Fiesta from www.Outspark.com. It’s not too bad. There are usually thousands of people connected at one time.

 

Check out the new laptop:

 

 

 

Celebrating more than 20,000 pages views as of this week. It’s weird to think that there are so many people who wander through this place. Not the most exciting blog on the net but it serves its purpose (my writing outlet). I started this space in December 2004 which makes it a tad over three years old now.

 

In celebration of all things 20,000 I might go out and rent "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" – a classic movie adventure based on a great fantasy written in the late 1800’s by Jules Verne.

 In any given day we discover countless things about the world, ourselves and often in both…if we pay close enough attention we might even recall these things. Here are a few things I discovered today:

 

– I absolutely love Bruce Springsteen’s new song Radio Nowhere

– Leonard Cohen’s song "If It Be Your Will" makes me feel like an amateur (it’s that good)

– I am an instant fan of the role-playing game HeroScape after Matthew bought it with his Christmas Toys-R-Us card…we played a bunch of games today.

– I am also a fan of Caleb’s purchase of Cubes which makes me laugh and Itsy’s purchase of Squakers McCraw the parrot (I thought I’d hate it)

– I like the musical group Feist

– I like Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

– The average age of Facebook users in Canada is 34

 

I’m sure there was much more that I have forgotten but there ya go.

 

Recently I read an article by Philip Yancey posted to Christianity Today’s website ( http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/january/20.72.html?start=1 ) about John Duns Scotus and the Doctrine of the Absolute Primacy of Christ in the Universe.

 

As high-minded as the doctrine (teaching) sounds it can be boiled down to the idea that Christ’s incarnation was not simply a restorative response to our brokeness (a simplified version of Scotus contemporary Thomas Aquinas’s approach) but would have happened even if we had never sinned. Scotus felt that to suggest that the incarnation was a reaction or response of God was somewhat limiting Him (in the sense that a reactive God would be a limited God).

 

Scotus uses scripture effectively to show that the incarnation was always a part of God’s grand plan of creation and whether it occured in a broken or an unbroken world was not the primary point. The goal of the incarnation first and foremost was to join creation with God and God with creation. The fact that such joining is also restorative is a testimony to brilliance of God and His nature. On the spectrum of God-centric versus Human-centric I would say that Scotus’s teaching is more God-centric whereas Aquinas’s (at least in this instance) is more Human-centric.

 

Seen from this perspective we become part of the redemptive creative nature of Christ furthering the restorative work of the incarnation through Christ’s body – the church. Yancey points out that the broken nature of the world constantly distracts and fragments the church which requires re-creation and re-union on the sabbath when we come together again as the body of Christ regularly resurrecting and extending the Kingdom of God into the world.

 

Scotus’ views tie nicely into my sermon last Sunday on the tapestry of faith & works because they emphasize action not for (as Yancey says) humanistic, Arminian reasons, but creative kingdom reasons.

 

In summary – I need to read more Scotus.

 

 

 

We rented the movie Stardust tonight and it was a REALLY good. The movie is a fantasy starring Michele Pfeiffer, Robert DeNiro, and Claire Danes. It has a very classic fairytale feel to it There is a light campy humour to it (maybe a little Monty Python influence). The movie is based upon a graphic novel written by Neil Gaiman and is really a brilliant love story/adventure.

 

With Stardust I now have the perfect completion of a trio of brilliant, like-minded fantasies. The other two include – Ladyhawke (also starring Michele Pfeiffer along with Rutger Haur, and Matthew Broderick) and The Princess Bride. All three are great movies worth watching. The movie is PG-13 for a reason because of hints of pre-marital sex…but thankfully there is nothing lewd or crude and no nudity or poor language.

 

These three movies are the kind of movies that develop strong cult followings and generally don’t do as well critically. That being said you can read some reviews of Stardust at the followings sites:

 

– http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/stardust?q=stardust

 

– http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/stardust/

 

– http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/reviews/2007/stardust.html

 

– http://www.dove.org/reviewmasterframe.asp