Pastor's Blog

3-D movies are back!  After watching Avatar, it is safe to say that the 3-D experience is bigger and better than ever before.  Wanting to share the joy of watching a movie in “eye-popping” 3-D, I recently took my two older children to watch their first 3-D movie.  Within minutes they took off their adult-sized glasses and refused to put them back on.  This meant that the images they saw on the screen were blurry.  Since this is a religious column titled “The Good Word,” let’s use the 3-D experience as a metaphor for the Word of God, much like the Psalmist used a lamp to describe God’s Word in Psalm 119:105.  Imagine that the screen is our lives and the 3-D glasses are the Word of God. When you look at the screen without the glasses the images are blurry and give you a headache, but when you look at them through the glasses everything becomes clear and the headache goes away.  When you look at your life without the Word of God everything seems to be messy and can lead to more than a headache, but when you look at your life through the Word of God, you begin to see things clearly.  While the glasses help you see things more clearly, some (like my children) refuse to wear them, just as some refuse to use the Word of God to help them see God, themselves, and the world more clearly. 

           As a Presbyterian minister, I have studied the works of John Calvin at length.  John Calvin wrote his “Institutes on Christian Religion” to help ministers better understand and teach scripture.  In the Institutes, Calvin suggested that Scripture was like a pair of glasses that helps those with blurred vision see the world more clearly.  Our vision of the world is blurred by sin, so God has given us his Word to help us better understand who God is and who God is calling us to be.  We can either use the Word to see the world more clearly, or we can refuse to be aided by the Word and look at the world with our own blurred vision.
 
            The Bible tells the story of God’s saving action in the world. It is made up of a collection of different books written by different people in different styles and in different times. These multiple perspectives provide a link with a postmodern society that values multiple perspectives and promotes relativism.  While we do not buy into society’s claim that “it’s all relative” or “I’m good, you’re good, it’s all good,” we do recognize that each of us has a unique experience of God and that we are called to value each person and their life experiences.  Because we value people as individuals we are called to share the Word with them as we invite them to see how their story connects with God’s story.  Christians should not shy away from, but be eager to engage in discussions about questions of faith, personal experience, and truth claims.

            The Spirit enables us to see God at work in the world.  When we look at life through the lens of faith, we begin to see where society is seeking Christ and where Christ is already at work.  Our music, movies, and television shows often include or engage Christian imagery, biblical allusions, and life applications.  Sometimes these references or themes promote, blur, or conflict with the Word.  We need to prayerfully consider how we can use music, movies, and television to engage in conversations that are honest, relevant, and faithful.  We need to seek opportunities to engage in faithful discussions that will allow us to share the “Good Word” with others.  After all, the Word is like a pair of 3-D glasses that helps us see things more clearly and helps alleviate the headaches in life.

Jennifer and I purchased iphones the day before Grayson was born. When we got them, I thought they would be cool, but I had no idea how cool they are. There really is an app for just about everything. I started running recently and there is a great app that tells me my time, distance, and pace. I was also able to sync my email, calendar, and tasks from my new computer and iphone. I also recently started playing chess on my iphone - I can woop the computer when I set it on a low setting, but when I increase it's "intelligence" I either run out of time or lose. One of our friends said that getting an iphone was lifechanging - while I won't go that far - it has made a lot of things easier and more interesting.
So I was wondering - for those of you that have an iphone - what apps do you use most? 
And for those of you who don't have iphones - they just knocked $100 off the price at Walmart (according to my good friend who just so happens to be the store manager at our local Walmart)

I recently heard a preacher say that if a preacher disagrees with something another preacher says, then you will hear all about it on their blog. This same preacher says that if a preacher loves what another preacher says, then you will you will hear it when they preach it in their sermon this Sunday. Well, I won't be preaching on Caiaphas this Sunday, but I love what Dr. Crilley has to say about him in his most recent post. If you don't follow drcrilley.blogspot.com, you should start now - but don't be surprised if some of the material sounds familiar when I preach it sometime down the road. 

History tells us that Caiaphas was the high priest of the Jewish Sanhedrin between the years AD 18 and 37. He was appointed by Valerius Gratus, the Roman governor prior to Pontius Pilate; and the primary reason that Caiaphas was able to hold on to the position for close to two decades is that he did exactly what was expected of him.

Basically, his job was to ensure that everything continued running as smoothly as possible: first, so that Jews stayed out of jail and off crosses, and second, because there were some clear advantages to cooperating with Rome. The roads were easier to travel, the streets safer at night, and having Roman troops at every corner obviously kept Israel from being invaded by anybody else!

True, the taxes were terrible; and no one really enjoyed living in an occupied territory. But the cost of challenging Caesar’s authority was considerably higher than the cost of compromising with him. You know the old saying—“If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”

And for most of the year, this forced alliance worked just fine. People may have grumbled about the Romans, but they usually did so under their breath and out of earshot of the soldiers. Passover was the only time when things could get a little dicey because of course, Passover was the celebration of Israel’s dramatic release from captivity, and it never took much to remind folks that release from captivity was still the number one priority.

So when the high priest heard reports of an itinerant Galilean preacher named Jesus, who was stirring up the people, and who was making his way toward Jerusalem for the Passover, Caiaphas’ mind went into overdrive. If he ignored the reports and simply let the agitator go on agitating, then who knows what could happen. The flames of religious fervor were easily stoked this time of year. There could be rioting in the streets. There might even be a full-scale revolt.

The result would be a swift and merciless crackdown by Rome, with many innocent people killed in the process. No matter how Caiaphas did the arithmetic, it always came out the same—better that one person should die than have an entire nation perish! I’m not sure what he had against Jesus personally; he was just being practical and taking care of business. If he wanted to keep his job, he needed to keep the peace.

The irony is that Jesus eventually reached the same conclusion—better for one to die so that everybody else can be spared. Only here’s the thing … Jesus’ death was not to keep the peace; it was to bring peace to us. For Caiaphas, it was “just business, nothing personal” … and for Jesus, it was all personal!