The Sermon on the Mount 10

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. — Matthew 5.8

As I sit down to write this, our community is still in shock. Last Friday, a young fourteen year old boy was shot in the back of the head by a fellow classmate at one of the local middle schools. The shooting took place a few miles from our home; we drive past this school three or four times a week. The shooter has been in custody at a juvenile detention facility all weekend. Today local law enforcement officials confirmed that this was a calculated, premeditated attack; the shooter was waiting for his victim in the ninth grade hall during class change, he walked right up to him and pulled the trigger.

We might ask ourselves, “What causes someone to do such a thing?” All we can say is we have no idea what goes on in the heart of another.

Kierkegaard said, “Purity of heart is to will one thing — God’s will.” Jesus speaks a word about purity of heart in the Beatitudes. And it’s no accident that he equates this purity of heart with vision. Those who will one thing see the world through that lens. Our “one thing” is the filter through which we receive and understand reality.

If my one thing is the will of God, I will see you as God sees you: a being lovingly crafted to bear His image in the world.

If my one thing is my will — my cravings, my passions, my interests — then I will see you as an object to help gratify these desires. Or I will view you as an impediment to those desires, as something to be removed or displaced or shot.

What is your “one thing”?

There’s an old video of me as a child. I’m just running around in circles in our back yard, like a dog chasing its tail. In the next clip, I’m running through the house; you’ll see a little blur in the corner every couple of seconds…that’s me as I go zipping through. My Mom told me that when I was young they would sometimes put my dinner plate on the hearth in the living room. I’d come running through, take a bite from my plate, and take off again on some great adventure as Han Solo or Indiana Jones.

Now I have a son of my own and he’s about the same age I was in the old home movie. And sure enough, he loves to run, too. He says to me, “Dad, wanna see me run speed?” And I say, “Sure, man,” and he takes off through the house, carrying his Tennessee Vols football, making his way to the end zone for one more Volunteer touchdown.

Joshua has never seen these old videos of me. But I know this: his one thing is to be like his father. I know it won’t always be like this; I’m sure when he’s a teenager, we’ll have our share of disagreements; but for now, I relish playing the role of hero to my son. And here’s the beautiful thing: without knowing it, Joshua is taking on my character, my nature. I see him out of the corner of my eye, watching me hold my spoon as I scoop up some of Sunny’s chicken noodle soup. And then I see him trying to hold his spoon the same way because his one thing is to do it like Dad does it. And I remember doing the same thing as a child, watching my Dad as he read the paper, as he brushed his teeth, as he walked across a room. And I remember copying his moves, because my Dad was my one thing.

Jesus is offering a new reality, a new nature, when the Father becomes our “one thing”. This is the blessing for the pure in heart.

Baja Relief

Our church has been involved in the work in the Baja peninsula of Mexico for many years. We help oversee the mission efforts of about a dozen churches in Baja and many of our families have developed special relationships with the Latino brothers and sisters in these congregations. In late January, flooding in northern Baja destroyed many homes for these dear families. These flood waters also severely damaged many of the church buildings and washed out many of the crops that were ready to be picked. As a result, many of these families have nothing to eat and nowhere to go for work. The situation is dire to say the least, and sadly, nobody knows much about this because the disaster in Haiti continues to dominate the news coverage. But this is a serious situation as well, and I’d like to ask you to think and pray about how you can help.  (For a complete report, click here or visit the Baja Missions link in the sidebar on the left.)

On the heels of a major contribution to the ongoing relief effort in Haiti, the timing for this kind of disaster couldn’t be worse. But it’s in moments like this that the body of Christ springs to action without hesitation. Many of our churches in Baja have become soup kitchens for the poor and displaced in these communities. Our team leaders are already mobilizing a relief effort to help with rebuilding. Plans are already being made for more planting to be done once the flood waters subside. In all things, the Kingdom of God marches on.

I know that most of you who read the things I write do so because we have a church connection, so you’ve probably already contributed to this relief effort. But for those of you who don’t share that church connection with me, I wanted to make you aware of another tremendous area of need. We are partnering with other sponsoring churches here in the States to provide immediate financial aid to this disaster-stricken area. Food, water, clothing, shelter, diapers, socks, hygiene products…these are the things that are needed most in the Baja. If you’re reading this on Facebook and you’d like to help out, send me a message. If you’re reading this through WordPress, leave me a comment or email me at jason at mayfair dot org and I’ll tell you how you can help.

LOST Season Six: More Thoughts on LAX

I’m still unpacking from Tuesday night’s data dump. The more I think about the episode, the more I like it. (A second viewing certainly didn’t hurt either.) I think my initial reaction was just pushing back from this “parallel universe” idea. (Since I’ve stayed spoiler-free, I had no idea this was coming.) However, I’m more and more intrigued by the concept of what would have happened if Oceanic had never crashed and how these characters fates would have been different. We’ve already been given a little insight into this: Hurley’s luck, Shannon’s absence on 815, no Michael or Walt sitting near Hurley, etc.

Yet, there were also plenty of parallels. Jack mending his wound in the airplane bathroom parallels his “physician, heal thyself” moment on the beach in the early part of Episode 1. Boone’s comments to Locke (“If this thing goes down, I’m sticking with you.”) are indicative of the Obi-Wan / Luke relationship the two shared on the Island. Kate’s marshall suffers the same kind of head injury in both realities. So the big question that emerges out of “LA X, Parts 1 & 2″ is the same question we’ve been asking for a while now: free will or destiny? The episode seems to go out of its way to show that no matter the circumstances, Jack is destined to rush to help people and fix problems; and he seems destined to be hated for it no matter what — on the Island, by Sawyer (who blames Jack for Juliet’s death); and on the plane by Charlie (who makes the cryptic comment to Jack, “I was supposed to die.”).

But the great irony here is that Juliet is the one responsible for her death. In the S5 finale, it was her choice to jump the Dharma guy with the OJ, break out of the handcuffs and commandeer the sub back to the Island. It was also her choice to go along with Jack’s plan to detonate Jughead, albeit a choice spurned on by her assumption that Sawyer still harbors strong feelings for Kate. In the same way, it seems that Charlie is destined to die; however, Island Charlie chooses the noble death (saving his friends by dying in the Looking Glass station) afforded him by Desmond’s many rescue attempts.

So again we ask: Is Jack destined to be hated for his heroism? Or is his plight more a result of the free choices of those around him?

In this episode, Jack tries to revive Sayid after he’s “died”; Kate tells him to stop and eventually he does. I think we’re meant to recall the similar scene from Season 1, where Jack is trying desperately to revive Charlie after it appears that he’s been hung by Ethan. Jack pumps away, Kate tells him to stop, he doesn’t…and Charlie is miraculously revived. The difference here is that Jack has finally learned to let go of the things he has no control over. Don’t think that’s not important.

Desmond Hume aboard Oceanic Flight 815

The big wild card here is Desmond. I think he’s the key to understanding this. Maybe he’s mastered the whole time-traveling-consciousness thing and thus he’s able to materialize on the plane for a brief moment. Since “the rules don’t apply” to Desmond, I have a feeling we’ll learn that this isn’t 2004 pre-Island Desmond. I think he’s able to shift between realities, to see in “real time” (whatever that means) the same thing Juliet saw just before she died and thought, “It worked”.This screen grab seems to indicate that Desmond is wearing a wedding ring; could it be that 2007 Desmond (who is married to Penelope and father to Charlie) is somehow interacting with this alternate world to bring about some ultimate outcome? I don’t know and the whole thing makes my head hurt. But I think I may be on to something here.

Anyway, now I’m thinking Sayid never really died at all. If he did, then Miles should’ve been able to communicate with him. But just before Sayid is “resurrected”, Miles is looking at his body with a perplexed look on his face. When Hurley asks him what’s wrong, Miles just replies, “Nothing.” Maybe Sayid was never really dead to begin with; I’m thinking we’re seeing the same thing that happened to young Ben when Kate and Sawyer took him to the Others in 1977.

Once again, I’m amazed at this show’s ability to get me to think about weighty issues. I completely forgot to mention the “afterlife” themes that run through the show: Sayid’s rumination about where he’ll go upon death; Juliet’s curtain-being-pulled-back moment prior to her passing; the ankh in the guitar case, which is the Egyptian symbol for eternal life. I’m not sure what it all means, but I’m looking forward to finding out.

LOST Season Six: LAX, Parts 1 and 2

Okay, I’ve been a faithful devotee of this show for years now. Even when it didn’t make sense, even when it seemed they were making it up as they went, even during the polar bear cage days of Season 3. But I have to confess: this premiere was a major letdown, at least on initial viewing. I’m holding out hope that they’ll right the ship here, but its hard not to be a little disappointed at this stage in the game.

I’m REALLY not digging the “flash sideways” storytelling device. With the phrase “flash sideways”, the producers are referring to the LAX storyline. (For a detailed explanation of the “flash sideways” from Damon and Carlton, click here.) It seems that for at least part of this season, we’ll find out what would have happened if Oceanic 815 had indeed never crashed. We saw several of these implications early in the episode, most notably Desmond never shipwrecks on the Island. (I still wonder about Farraday’s comment to him from last season: “The rules don’t apply to you.”) I definitely wasn’t expecting this and I don’t really care to see “what would’ve happened”. How are we supposed to interpret this storyline? Is it “real”? Another possibility? How can it possibly be reconciled with any of the previous 100+ hours of the series we’ve invested in to this point? Like I said, it’s hard not to be disappointed.

At the same time, we’re witnessing an “alternate reality” where the bomb detonated and our castaways are blown back to the Island present in 2007. Juliet has a tearful goodbye with Sawyer, but she imparts this one little piece of info (via Miles) as she exits: it worked. Is Juliet somehow aware of these alternate universes? Will she and Sawyer have a fortuitous encounter in this off-Island universe? If so, I’m betting we hear her utter the same words she spoke as she died in Sawyer’s arms: something about grabbing coffee and going dutch.

As for revelations in this episode, we had several.

• We were correct to link the Man in Black with Smokey.
• The Man in Black alludes to Richard and his “chains”. I’m pretty sure this is a reference to the Black Rock, a slave trading ship from the 1800s. I’m betting Richard was a slave on the ship, the same ship we saw coming to the Island in the Season Five finale.
• We finally got to see the inside of the Temple. Lots of hieroglyphs. Lots of dudes with guns and turbans. And muddy water that drowns you and then saves you. Weird.
• We finally got to see what was inside the guitar case. I’m wondering if all of this means Jacob has now inhabited Sayid’s body, in a way that’s similar to the Man in Black’s use of Locke.
• The volcano ash that surrounded Jacob’s former cabin was explained (sort of). Seems it was intended to keep Smokey out.

I still have plenty of questions:

Why the blood on Jack’s collar when he looks in the mirror in the airplane bathroom?

How does Charlie know he’s “supposed” to die?

What is it that has changed Hurley’s luck? How is it that he thinks he’s the “luckiest man alive” in the alternate timeline?

Why can’t the show spring for some better CGI graphics?

Most of all, what happens in an “alternative reality” when Jacob & the Man in Black have been presumably blown to smithereens with the rest of the Island? Isn’t this whole thing about some age old argument / feud between these two? How can this be played out in the “new” timeline?

What about you? Your thoughts? Did you love it or were you disappointed?

LOST Season Six: At Last

Well, LOST fans, we’re finally here. The beginning of end. With the premiere of Season six tonight, we’re officially in the last days of LOST-dom. To say I’m stoked would be an understatement. It’s been a long eight months since Juliet detonated Jughead and our screens went white. In the downtime, I went back and re-watched the entire series from “Pilot” to “The Incident”. Here are some of my random ruminations as we prep for the final season premiere of LOST:

• The question circulating for most fans seems to be “Timeline reboot: Yes or No?” Was Jack successful in his quest to detonate the bomb and rewrite history? I’m tempted to say “yes”, but I think that might be too easy; I think that’s what they want us to think. If time was rewritten, what does that do to these characters that we’ve grown to love over the course of five seasons? Are all of these experiences — both redemptive and destructive — somehow just negated or “washed away” by Jughead? If so, that’s weak. At least I think so. I could envision a scenario where 815 lands in LAX but the castaways retain the memory of the “future” that never happened, but even that seems whack. And if everything is rebooted, what do we do about the “current” Island timeline of 2007 — you know, where Locke isn’t Locke and Ben stabs Jacob? I think Miles might have gotten it right in last year’s finale: Jack and co. may actually have caused the very thing (the Incident) they were trying to keep from happening.
• At the end of Season five, Sun approaches Richard Alpert with a 70’s era picture of Dharma life. Of course, its a pic of Jack, Kate, Hurley, etc. Sun’s question to Richard: “Have you ever seen these people?” Do you remember Richard’s answer? “Yes, I watched them all die.” If Jack and the crew somehow “died” during the Jughead explosion / reboot, then how could Richard say he saw them die? I suppose Richard could just be lying to Sun, but I doubt it. I’m wondering if the Jughead explosion wasn’t quite as dramatic as we thought; perhaps there’s a little more 70’s era Dharma story to be told.
• I worry about my boy Sayid. In the season five finale, he comments that he’s beyond saving, beyond redemption. Sayid, like Mr. Eko, is a remorseless killer who feels his actions have satisfied some deep internal craving for justice, for things to be made right. And like Mr. Eko, I fully expect Sayid to pay the ultimate price for this lack of penance. Think back to Ben’s “judgment” by Smokey in the bowels of the Temple. He’s only spared when he tells “Alex” how sorry he is for letting her die. Repentance seems to be at least one of the keys to redemption on this Island.
• I just love how even now, five seasons and 100+ episodes in, I’m still captivated by the undergirding question Charlie asked at the end of the first episode: “Guys, where are we?”
• Along those lines, I’m hoping the producers don’t feel the need to answer each of the show’s mysteries to appease a fan base that wants it all to “make sense”. Don’t get me wrong; I want to know what Smokey is, or why Locke is so special, or the true nature of Jacob & the Man in Black’s centuries old feud. But the older I get, the more comfortable I am with ambiguity. In that way, my engagement with this show has been similar to the character arc of Jack. At first, I was probably a rigid “man of science”; I wanted it to all make sense, to add up. I read articles about what the Numbers could mean. I theorized about who the Others were and what they wanted. But over time, I realized — like Jack — that this whole ride is better if you just roll with it. I guess what I’m saying is that while I expect a certain level of explanation and “answers”, I’m also okay with some of the more mythic elements of the show retaining their mysticism. So while I expect an answer re: Smokey (and the producers have promised one), I’m less certain that we’ll ever get a definitive answer to the “What is the Island?” question. And I’m cool with that.
• My Adam & Eve prediction: Sun & Jin. At one point in time, I was convinced it was going to be Desmond and Penelope. But they’ve already had their happy ending (sort of), and after all the time-shifting loopiness that’s kept them apart, I can’t think of a happier ending for Sun & Jin than a lifetime together in the Island’s past. However, I’ve also had a long running theory that Adam & Eve would end up being Rose & Bernard. Who knows?
• Speaking of Desmond, I hope there’s plenty more of his story to be told. He was severely underused in season five, and he’s actually become one of my favorite characters. I hope we get a healthy dose of Desmond in the final chapter of LOST.
• Speaking of severely underused in season five, I guess we’ll finally find out what happened to Claire. Is she a ghost? I don’t really care. But one thing has always bugged me: so far, Desmond’s flash that convinced Charlie to give up his life has yet to come true. He told Charlie that if he flipped the switch in the Looking Glass and died there, that Aaron and Claire would get on a helicopter and be rescued. I’m struggling to see how that can happen at this point. And that annoys me. I’d be disappointed if they don’t circle back around to this; I hope it’s not a hole in the narrative.

Well, that’s enough for now. I’ll have a full recap of tonight’s episode posted by tomorrow. Until then, enjoy tonight’s premiere. Namaste.

Things I Want to Remember, Vol. 3

Tonight on the way home from church:

Abby Kate: “Joshua, I just wish I was you.”

Joshua: “Why?”

Abby Kate: “I don’t know. I just do.”

Joshua: “Do you like getting in trouble or something?”

__________

Yesterday, the kids were in the play room playing “married”. Apparently, they do this all the time. They get all of their little animals out; Abby Kate gets one of the “girl” animals, Jackson gets one of the “boy” animals, and Joshua performs a shotgun ceremony right there in the playroom.

During his “service”, Joshua says the following, in his loud “preacher” voice:

“Do you take this husband to be your weddily, weddily wife? OK, then now you can kiss. Go ahead. Kiss.”

The kid keeps me in stitches.

LOST Season Six: Viral Videos

If you haven’t heard by now, it seems that the first four minutes of LOST Season Six have been leaked on the Internet. Apparently some fan won a contest that granted him/her a preview of the opening scene and said fan decided to post the clip to the web. Since I’ve stayed spoiler free since midway through Season Two, I resisted the urge to check it out. But I have to admit…it was mighty tempting. I just want to know what happens next. But I’ve waited eight months, so what’s four more days, right?

To help you resist the urge to spoil the season premiere, let me direct you to another video, this one a creative, hilarious recap of the key moments from LOST…re-enacted by some dude’s Italian family. My favorite line comes from the old guy in the beginning: “Hey, we’re lost! We’re lost!”

Also, let me remind you that I’ll be posting my LOST recap every Wednesday throughout this final season. Can’t believe it’s here. Hope you enjoy!

Best Albums of 2009: Redux

Every year, I’ll post my favorite albums from the past 12 months. Inevitably, I’ll miss a couple of releases and — after getting my hands on them — I’ll make some changes to my list.

This year was no different. A couple weeks ago, after I was given an iTunes gift card, I downloaded the latest release from Pearl Jam, “Backspacer”. I’d heard good things about it, but I never downloaded it last year, mainly because it wasn’t available on eMusic.

Well, after listening to it for a couple of weeks, I’m convinced its the best Pearl Jam record since “Yield” and it certainly deserves a place on my annual “Best Of” list. Tough break, Mountain Goats. Maybe next year.

Here’s the revised list. You’ll note I’ve also elevated “I and Love and You” by the Avett Brothers. I’ve been playing it nonstop for two months now and I love it more each time I listen to it. Well, except for “Kick Drum Heart”. I don’t think I’ll ever like that song.

2009 Top 20 Albums

1. U2, No Line on the Horizon
2. M Ward, Hold Time
3. The Avett Brothers, I and Love and You
4. Eels, Hombre Lobo
5. Justin Townes Earle, Midnight at the Movies
6. Pearl Jam, Backspacer
7. Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
8. Monsters of Folk, Monsters of Folk
9. Bruce Springsteen, Working on a Dream
10. Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band, Outer South
11. Neko Case, Middle Cyclone
12. Slaid Cleaves, Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away
13. Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit
14. Magnolia Electric Co., Josephine
15. Great Lake Swimmers, Lost Channels
16. Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest
17. David Bazan, Curse Your Branches
18. Regina Spektor, Far
19. Andrew Bird, Noble Beast
20. Ben Kweller, Changing Horses

A New Look

Went with a new look for the ol’ blog. I had the same “look” over at blogspot for years; when I made the switch to wordpress, I went with a black background, but after a while it got to be a little hard on the eyes. Another sign I’m aging, I guess.

Anyway, tell me what you think about the new look. I think it’s easier on the eyes but still easy to navigate as well.

CBS Really Does Love Tim Tebow

I always said CBS had some kind of love affair with Tim Tebow.

(Or at the very least, Vern Lundquist seemed to have some sort of man crush on the guy.)

Now — according to this story — it looks like we might have official confirmation.

I’ll make no bones about it; I love this, seeing as how I’m a pro-life advocate. It’ll actually give me something to look forward to besides ridiculous Pepsi ads and (hopefully) another Super Bowl win for my boy Peyton.