Off-Topic: Comic Book Reviews For 1-28-2015

DC's JUSTICE LEAGE: DARK #38
This story has been a bit of a mess for me. Part of the problem is, I think, that the JLD takes on figures that are too world-threatening all the time. I need some more down to earth storytelling. I wish DC would come out with a DEADMAN comic that is more along the lines of the classic comic book. But I digress. This issue did have some bright spots, especially centering around Swamp Thing. There were some interesting thematic elements, including some reflections on God, time and the creation of the world. The art was spectacular, too. It raised the overall book, but the story remains something of a mess.
Storyline: 3 Stars
Dialogue: 3.5 Stars
Pacing: 2.5 Stars
Art: 4.5 Stars
Overall: 3.5 Stars

DC's THE MULTIVERSITY GUIDEBOOK One-Shot (MULTIVERSITY #6)
This comic book included a true comic book story, alongside a kind of review of everything Multiversity is about and all that is really going on. It was somewhat enlightening, and certainly entertaining. The main storylines, which dealt with the uber-story from MULTIVERSITY #1, were very engrossing and simply brilliant. I loved, loved, loved this book. I loved the story of the comic book section, and I loved the examination of the entire MULTIVERSITY event that peppered the book. The art throught out was variegated and just blew my mind. On every level, this book works. It remains, as so many of the books of this series have been, enigmatic in the extreme.
Storyline: 4.5 Stars
Dialogue: 5 Stars
Pacing: 3.5 Stars
Art: 5 Stars
Overall: 5 Stars

Marvel's SPIDER-MAN 2099 #8 (Spider-Verse Crossover)
This was one of the best Spider-Verse books I've read and that is saying something, as there have been some real gems in this crossover. Here, Miguel O'Hara and Lady Spider from the Steampunk Universe work together to build a super-weapon against the Inheritors and in the meantime fend off some of Lady Spider's very interesting enemies. The art was fantastic, the storytelling was tight and excellent, and I just loved the interaction between the two heroes. This is everything that has made this crossover fun and interesting, and then some. Buy this comic book.
Storyline: 4 Stars
Dialogue: 4.5 Stars
Pacing: 4 Stars
Art: 4.5 Stars
Overall: 4.5 Stars

Marvel's SPIDER-WOMAN #3 (Spider-Verse Crossover)
While not as good as the 2099 book (see above), this book also captured much of what has made the Spider-Verse a fun ride. I loved the internal monologue of Jessica Drew throughout, she's a rather interesting character that is well-developed here. There is some humorous dialogue, though some of it covers ground we've seen in other comic books (that referenced the events of this book). The art is strong, too. I so enjoyed the book, especially the ending.
Storyline: 4 Stars
Dialogue: 4 Stars
Pacing: 4 Stars
Art: 4.5 Stars
Overall: 4 Stars

Bonhoeffer Study Guide

This uses the documentary from Martin Doblmeier on Bonhoeffer's life and theology. You can find it here:
http://www.amazon.com/Bonhoeffer-Eberhard-Bethge/dp/B0001GH7W2

Here is the study:

Bonhoeffer Study

00:00:01-00:13:50

What did Marianne Liebholz say was the most important thing that Bonhoeffer and his friends did?

(Note: Recognize how evil Nazism was and that it must be resisted.)

Why do you think she believes this?

(Note: It showed what kind of person Bonhoeffer and his friends were. Many people were taken in by the Nazis, but Bonhoeffer wasn’t. He had enough goodness in him to clearly recognize evil.)

How do we learn to recognize evil?

(Note: By learning about good. We have to spend time with God, and focus on the moral life, and try to experience the good. Only by acquainting ourselves with goodness can we learn to know evil.)

What does Desmond Tutu say about Bonhoeffer?

(Note: That he maintained great faith in the face of terrible darkness.)

How can we learn to have faith in the face of terrible darkness?

(Note: Through prayer, and struggle, and trying to face that darkness AS a Christian. We must learn what it is to be a Christian facing evil, if we are to live as a Christian facing evil. It also helps to learn about how other Christians faced their own struggle, including Jesus Christ. That is, in part, what we are doing here: learning how to face darkness as a Christian.)

How did the German churches respond to WWI?

(Note: They capitulated to the state, took everything it said as the truth, and supported the war effort without question.)

What do you think of this attitude? Can a church ever support war? Why or why not?

(Note: Their may be situations in which war can be or must be supported as a last resort to ensure peace of justice. But to accept all the state says uncritically is unchristian. The Church must never be the mere tool of the state.)

What are the dangers in the church supporting a war effort?

(Note: It may betray Christ’s call to peace, or allow itself to fall along with the state if the state loses the war.)

What did Bonhoeffer write about WWI?

(Note: That it was a time when death knocked at every door and called for entry.)

Have you ever experienced death in this way, as an animated force?

What effect did the loss in the war have on the churches in Germany?

(Note: It caused the people to abandon the churches, and to look on its leaders as hypocrites.)

Why does hypocrisy arise within the church so often? How do we as Christians guard against hypocrisy?

(Note: When someone tries to be the best, they often make pretense before they achieve it. You have to some degree to ‘pretend’ to be good if you are going to learn how to be good. But blatant two-faced actions are unacceptable. Christians need to put Jesus Christ first, and His teachings first. Jesus entire life was aimed at fighting religious hypocrisy.)

What are some hypocrisies you see in your own lives?

What effect did Walter’s death have on Bonhoeffer?

(Note: It caused him to be an ardent, passionate, pacifist. It gave him something to fight against when he became a theologian.)

What are some ways we can respond positively to someone’s death?

(Note: We have to learn from loss, and like Bonhoeffer try to see in it a call or mission. Maybe we have some evil to fight, or maybe we need to learn to become stronger people. But any loss can be turned into a gain if we look at it the right way.)

What kind of people were the Bonhoeffers?

(Note: Politically active, conservative, but not religious.)

How does your family compare to the Bonhoeffers?

Do we have a responsibility to lead our families towards religion if we think it is important?

(Note: If you believe something, you are going to share it. It makes sense to at least engage your family at the level of your own beliefs.)

What was Bonhoeffer’s experience of the church?

(Note: Not very positive, more as a social club than a living religious community.)

What is yours?

What does the theologian in the film say church is supposed to be?

(Note: A fundamental community in which you discover who you really are and discover the reality of Christ in the world today.)

What does it mean to enter a ‘fundamental’ community, where you ‘discover who you really are’?

(Note: A fundamental community is one that is bonded at the deepest level. Communities like this love each other as people, not just as members, and seek involvement in each other’s lives at more than the level of ideas. And by relating to each other, they find themselves, their values and the meaning of their lives. That is what Bonhoeffer is talking about: becoming a family.)

Do you believe that the Church is “Christ existing in the world today?” Why or why not?

What was Barth’s central thesis?

(Note: That all parts of the Great War reclaimed God for themselves, and made of the One Christian God, a tribal god reflecting the wants, needs, and attitudes of each group, and that this was a catastrophe for Christianity.)

Why is it so catastrophic to re-cast God in our own image?

(Note: What it allows us to do is worship ourselves while we simultaneously convince ourselves we are worshipping the One God. It is a subtler, and so more dangerous, form of idolatry.)

What was Bonhoeffer’s PhD thesis about?

(Note: The Church & human community)

What did Bonhoeffer say about the church?

(Note: That the church is Christ existing as community)

What major problem did Bonhoeffer see in the church?

(Note: That because only certain social strata stayed in the church, and the poor abandoned the church, it was a divided community.)

Do you see that problem still today?

(Note: Christianity is divided today, more along ideological and class lines. This division is more than denominationalism, it is a split in the soul of the church.)

How can we fight against this problem?

(Note: By reclaiming the sense that we are all a part of Christ. If we start with Jesus Christ, we can avoid some of the errors that divide us.

00:13:51-00:28:59

What was the difference between Barth and Niebuhr?

(Note: Barth was Christocentric in his approach in a way Niebuhr was not.)

Do you think that Christ has to be the primary center of a theology to make it valid? Why or why not?

How central is Jesus to your own thinking about God?

What did Niebuhr and Bonhoeffer have in common theologically?

(Note: Both thought that the purpose of religion and theology is to change the world for the better.)

Do you agree that theology and religion is supposed to change this world for the better, primarily? Or is it more about the next life? Explain your answer.

Where did Bonhoeffer go to church in New York?

(Note: Abissinian Baptist Church, an African-American evangelical congregation.)

What do you think it was like for Bonhoeffer to take part in an evangelical African-American worship experience?

(Note: It had to be surreal, like walking into another world. Here’s this white, intellectual German entering this emotional, deeply devout African-American community. Talk about ‘wild’.)

Have you ever experienced this type of worship? What did you think of it?

What are some of the ways that Bonhoeffer was affected by Abissinian?

(Note: He discovered a church that was emotional in a way his religion wasn’t, rapturous, and socially engaged.)

What does it mean for a church to be socially engaged?

(Note: It means a church is concerned with the actual political, economic, and social ills of the world in which it finds itself.)

What kind of attitude did Bonhoeffer have in the church? Why was this important?

(Note: He was humble. Being humble in a new Christian setting is vital if you are going to learn anything. If you enter into it assuming you already know what Christianity is ‘supposed to be’, you can miss out on something very important.)

How often do Christians ‘destroy the body of Christ’?

(Note: They let their brothers and sister suffer without care, they enter into violence and oppression upon other human beings. What you do to the least of persons, you do to God.)

What is the substance of Lassere’s discussions with Bonhoeffer?

(Note: That the gospels are clearly pacifist in their ethical approach, and so suspending them during wartime makes no sense.)

What do you think of Lassere’s position here?

What is the Sermon on the Mount?

(Note: It is the central ethical teachings of Jesus, the speech He gave in Israel that laid out his way of looking at life and ethics.)

What would it mean to put into practice the Sermon on the Mount?

What was Hitler’s theology?

(Note: It was the inverse of Barth’s theology, an active attempt to re-paint God and Christ in a Nazi, German light, to make God into a German and a Nazi.)

How do we guard against repainting God in our own image?

(Note: One, by letting God speak on His own terms, by letting all routes to God have an equal say in our decisions. Tradition, scripture, reason, experience, all of these must be open and must be set in tension with the others, so they can enter into a dialogue of cross-criticism, reducing the chance of error.)

What was Bonhoeffer’s radio address about?

(Note: It was a criticism of the cult of personality Hitler had cultivated in Germany’s youth.)

What do you think Bonhoeffer is warning against when he talks about political leaders making of themselves ‘an idol’ and ‘mocking God’?

(Note: He is warning against seeing politics and politicians as in some sense our ‘saviors’. Politicians cannot be the object of our religious reverence, that is reserved for God alone.)

What was the Church’s general attitude towards the Nazis? Why did they act this way?

(Note: The Church generally capitulated to the Nazis, hoping an alliance with the government of the Nazis would replenish their waning numbers and money.)

What does this tell us about being concerned with ‘numbers’ in the church?

(Note: When just drawing people in becomes an end in itself, you have betrayed your soul. Bringing people to God matters, but if you are focused on money and getting people in alone, you become vulnerable to the worst kind of corruption.)

Ludwig Mueller said the struggle for the soul of the people had begun? What was this struggle about?

(Note: He was talking about the new attempt to convince people that to be Christians they also had to be Nazis.)

How can we keep our churches from being manipulated like this?

00:29:00- 00:44:00

How did Bonhoeffer approach the Bible?

(Note: As the Word of God directed precisely at the reader.)

Have you ever had God speak to you through scripture? Can you give an example?

How does Bonhoeffer direct his students away from Hitler?

(Note: By emphasizing that only Christ can bring salvation.)

What does this say about the importance of the idea that Christ alone saves us?

(Note: By making Christ the sole source of salvation, we are less likely to be led astray by political and ideological leaders. If only Christ can save us, we will treat no other as our savior.)

What was Bonhoeffer’s grandmothers’ response to the boycott of the Jews?

(Note: To go to the shops she always went to and face down the boycotters.)

Do we have a responsibility to act this way when we see evil being done?

(Note: Absolutely, what Bonhoeffer’s grandmother did is what any decent person SHOULD do.)

In what way had Luther laid the foundation for the anti-Semitism of the Nazis?

(Note: He wrote texts that actually laid out plans for oppression of the Jews.)

How do we deal with, say, the anti-Judaism found in the gospels?

(Note: There is no easy answer here, there is a clear anti-Jewish tendency in much of the New Testament. How to handle it, is up to the individual. However, the wrong way to handle it is to adopt an anti-Judaistic stance oneself.)

What happened when Bonhoeffer was asked to preach at Gerhardt Liepholdz’s funeral?

(Note: He refused.)

What caused him to act this way?

(Note: He was told not to by the church, and feared consequences, he acted out of fear.)

How did this make him feel later on?

(Note: Ashamed)

Does Bonhoeffer’s later action make up for the mistake he made?

What is the substance of Bonhoeffer’s letter “The Church & the Jewish question”?

(Note: That ultimately the church has to stand on the side of the oppressed, that the church is called to help the victims of oppression.)

What are the three ways that the church can resist tyranny?

(Note: It can act as the state’s conscience, proclaiming what is right and refusing to just capitulate its beliefs to state whims. It can also help the victims. Finally, it can undergo a process of actually acting against the state.)

Under what circumstances is actual action against the state justified?

(Note: When lives are endangered, or when the state itself is closing off legal routes to resistance, then the Church has a right to choose to act against the state)

In what ways have you ‘bandages the victims of the wheel’ in life?

What was the Catholic belief about Hitler? What was the mistake here?

(Note: They believed that because Hitler was Catholic, he would act conservatively and legally. The mistake was to believe that religious belief necessarily tells us something about a person’s character.)

Have you ever made a major mistake about someone’s character?

What bothered Bonhoeffer when he joined the Pastor’s Emergency League?

(Note: That his actions were creating a rift in the church)

Why do you think Bonhoeffer saw the problems with Nazism in a way many of his colleagues didn’t?

What is the ecumenical movement?

(Note: It is the attempt to bring all the churches back together, and seek a reunified church.)

Do you support the ecumenical movement? Why or why not?

What was the Barmen Declaration?

(Note: It was the creation of a separate church entity, a protestation against the Nazified church, proclaiming that certain pastors would no longer follow the church as it had capitulated to the Nazis.)

What did Bethge say it was all about?

(Note: Confessing Christ, putting Christ first within the church and not allowing the Nazis to decide how the church would work and run.)

Why is it important to ‘confess Christ’ and no other?

What is NOT said at Barmen? What was it primarily focused on?

How does Bonhoeffer change that?

(Note: The Jews aren’t mentioned at Barmen, rather what is focused on is the freedom to run the church as the church itself sees fit. Bonhoeffer brings the focus back onto the Jews.)

00:44:00- 01:00:16

What is more important, the freedom to preach the gospel, or the freedom to stand by the victims? Why do you say this?

What was Bonhoeffer’s at Faneu about?

(Note: Peace, the need to establish it in light of the coming war, and the ecumenical movement’s role in doing so.)

Why do you think this bothered some people?

(Note: They didn’t want the church to be overly political in its stance, but wanted to keep things at the level of religion.)

Why didn’t Bonhoeffer change his speech, do you think?

(Note: Bonhoeffer already believed in the social engagement of the church, keeping it political was essential to maintaining his integrity.)

What does it mean to say ‘peace must be dared’?

(Note: Peace cannot be sought without risk. Peace requires that we are willing to live without guaranteed security, and so someone has to take the risk first.)

Have you ever won a battle with God?

What does it mean to say that whenever Christ calls us, His call leads us to death?

(Note: We cannot expect to live a Christian life without real sacrifice, and without ‘losing ourselves’ to find it. Certitude, security, all the things that make up our quest to ‘build a life’ must be left behind.)

What was life like at Zingst & Finkenwalde?

(Note: The seminarians were family, living as family. They engaged in prayer, scriptural study, and communitarian service. It was a living community.)

What new music and new experience from America did Bonhoeffer bring to his students?

(Note: He shared the music and experience of the Abissinian Baptist Church.)

What effect had his experience with the African-Americans had on Bonhoeffer now? How did the African-American experience ‘speak to’ the Germans?

(Note: The African-American experience helped get Bonhoeffer’s head right when it came to the Jewish question, and in that way spoke to the Germans at his school as well.)

Why do you think Bonhoeffer’s preaching was so unique?

(Note: He had learned how to preach in the evangelical style at Abissinian.)

What is the difference between ‘cheap grace’ and ‘costly grace’? What do you think this means?

(Note: Cheap grace is grace without sacrifice and responsibility. It is grace ‘without the cross’. Costly grace is sharing in the life of God, and all that entails, including self-sacrifice, and dying daily to ourselves.)

How is grace ‘costly to God’? Has grace been ‘costly’ to you? If so then how?

How did Bonhoeffer see the attack on the Jews? Why do you think he saw it this way?

(Note: Bonhoeffer saw the Jews as a revelation of Jesus Christ, and saw an attack on them as an attack on God. Because the Jews were the sufferers, he could see them as the ‘lowest’ with which Christ identified Himself.)

Why did the Bonhoeffers decide to resist Hitler violently?

(Note: They knew what he was doing in the concentration camps.)

Was this action justified? Why or why not?

How would you answer Bonhoeffer’s question about whether absolution for the killer of a tyrant is allowable?

01:00:17-01:14:10

What did America represent for Bonhoeffer?

(Note: Safety and security)

Why is the seeking after security a violation of faith?

(Note: Faith is the embrace of the life of risk, and venture. To seek proximate security is to give up the Ultimate Security of accepting life as it is, as a gift from God.)

How do we learn to seek the risky, venturesome path?

Have you ever chosen the risky path? Have you ever consciously rejected the risky path in life?

What is the ethical question Bonhoeffer asks? What is the difference between this and asking ‘what does it mean to do good’?

(Note: Bonhoeffer asks what the Will of God is, not what is ‘good’. This is a rejection of seeking a set of principles one can use oneself to guide one’s life and instead to be open to a spontaneous action of faith, whatever that might lead you to.)

What are some of the things you have been called to, or are called to in your own life? How do these things represent a risk for you?

Do you wish there was a shaft of light that could tell you that you are right?

What does Desmond Tutu say our actual situation is? How do we walk this tight rope?

(Note: He says we have to hold onto what we think is right by the skin of our teeth, unsure, insecure about it, and hope there is vindication on the other side.)

How do you think Bonhoeffer was able to decide to help kill Hitler?

(Note: Confronted with the actual horrors of the concentration camp, there was nothing else he could do.)

Can a Christian ever reasonably kill?

What are some of the concerns Bonhoeffer had to deal with in himself?

(Note: The issues of peace and justice, of war and oppression, and of the fact that he found himself in a concrete situation, where real people needed him to do SOMEthing.)

What do you think of Bonhoeffer’s relationship with Maria? Does it make sense?

Does their difference in age bother you? Why or why not?

Where does Bonhoeffer say we find the Will of God?

(Note: Through many different possibilities, in an unsure, continuous ‘searching’.)

Why is re-examination of the Will of God so important?

(Note: This keeps us from idolatry, we set our quests for God in tension with one another, and never seek some comfortable spot in which to just ‘sit’. It is a process of self-criticism and of living a penitent life.)

What are some of the ‘layers’ where we can look for the Will of God?

(Note: Scripture, experience, reason, the Bible, other people, anything, almost anything, can act to show us the will of God.)

What do you think of the Ally’s decision not to support the resisters?

What was the Christmas letter about?

(Note: It was about examining how being part of these plots had changed the plotters themselves, an ethical and theological reflection on the meaning of this morally ambiguous situation.)

What does Bonhoeffer think is really important in what they’ve done?

(Note: Bonhoeffer’s main concern is that they’ve learned to put those who suffer first, to see the world from the sufferer’s point of view.)

Why does he say this?

(Note: Bonhoeffer thinks that Christ reveals Himself through the lowest, the weakest, the suffering. This is another example of Bonhoeffer’s Christocentrism.)

01:14:11-01:31:00

What is Bonhoeffer’s main concern in prison?

(Note: His fiancée and making sure his family isn’t worried.)

How is Bonhoeffer when Bethge first sees him?

(Note: Happy, joyful, easy.)

What were some of the things the conspirators faced?

(Note: Imprisonment, torture, and death.)

What does Bonhoeffer say makes the church what it is?

(Note: Its existence for others, and the proclaiming what it means to LIVE in Christ.)

What does it mean to ‘live in Christ’?

(Note: It means to put the last first, and to live like Jesus.)

What did the Enlightenment do to religion? Why isn’t Christianity about this?

(Note: The Enlightenment had turned religion into a personal thing, something between ‘you and God’. Christianity is about human community, and so cannot be relegated to an isolated, personal sphere.)

Where did Bonhoeffer find strength in prison?

(Note: The Bible)

What book of the Bible is your favorite?

How does Bonhoeffer think Nazism has changed Christian ethics?

(Note: Bonhoeffer now sees the world as a place of great sin, where there is no such thing as a clear ‘right’ decision, but that in that darkness we are still called to act. So all you can do is the best you can, and throw yourself on the mercy of God.)

What do you think of this idea?

Does the fact that Hitler keeps surviving bother you? Does it sharpen the problem of evil for you? (Where is God in all this?)

(Note: The problem of evil is not just why innocent suffer, it is why the evil so often triumph. Hitler’s stubborn refusal to die is very annoying, and brings up many doubts. But God is still in the situation, within the sufferers, within those who are trying to help the sufferers.)

What does Bonhoeffer ask in his poem?

(Note: Who is he?)

What are some of the feelings expressed there?

(Note: Bonhoeffer is confused, fearful, empty, wondering if his life has meant anything at all, but finally faithful, trusting in God.)

Have you ever felt this way?

What were Bonhoeffer’s last words?

(Note: ‘This is the end, for me the beginning of life.’

Can you honestly join Bonhoeffer in this proclamation?

What is it about the last Bonhoeffer quote, read by Bethge, that makes it so important?

(Note: It is Bonhoeffer’s theology and ethics laid out simply. God is in the world within the life of the suffering person, that is Christ manifest. God is not ‘somewhere’, ‘out there’, but right here, in the person in need. You discover God in your response to them.)

Bonhoeffer & Youth Ministry

This is a good article, everyone in ministry should read:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2015/januaryfebruary/stop-worrying-about-millennials.html

This makes me feel good about the group I lead for three reasons:

1) I talk about Bonhoeffer a lot, and his theology plays a huge role in my life and our group.

2) Theology is a very important part of what we do. We debate and discuss big theological issues. Even though much of what we do uses film and television, the nature of our discussions is deeply theological.

3) My Inter-Generational Bible Study is very much like what I do with youth on Wednesday Nights. I have never really treated my youth any different than I do adults when it comes to theology. I despise fad youth ministry, and always counsel people to stop looking for the 'key' to youth and young adults. People are people.

The Best Show On Network TV is....

...GRIMM on NBC, Fridays. Catch up and get into it. It is nuts.

Ecclesiastes Modified

One of my favorite quotes from Ecclesiastes:

I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.- Ecclesiastes 9:11

But a friend of mine once said. "Yes the race does not always go to the swift nor the battle to the mighty, but that's the way to bet."

Indeed life does not always make sense, but much of it does. And life does not always seem to matter, but if often seems to matter. Something to remember when you tend to the morose, as I do.

Beasts Defeated and Not Defeated

Beast of boredom seems to have been slain about 5 years ago.

My drug addiction can never truly be said to be defeated until I pass from this life, but at least it has been in retreat for over a decade.

The monster of misplaced love seems to have little hold over me any more.

The demon of depression is not defeated by has been shrunk to a seemingly manageable size.

And diabolical, as opposed to holy or theoretical, doubt has no hold on me.

These beasts were defeated by faith in Jesus Christ, and a commitment to use that faith for personal growth. A lot of God, a little of me, and a moderate amount of luck, and I am free of a great many things that once held me.

Rage, while far less powerful than it once was, still causes far more complications than it should. It remains a constant danger, and I must be vigilant.

Ego is a monkey on my back that seems far too powerful than it should be.

Lust remains a muted by constant assailant.

I pray to God that He will give me the resources to move past these thorns as the other, but so far it looks like its going to be a long fight. Putting on the Full Armor of God is not the final step, but only the first. The battle waits up ahead. But I'm here, I'm seeking His Will, and I'm ready for round 50.

I'm Living Proof...

...that good things happen to bad people.

Fate & Choice

So a friend posted this on Facebook recently:

The overall sentiment I agree with, but the actual details I think are off. Perhaps destiny is something you earn, something offered but only won if hard fought. There seems to be this very interesting bifurcation fallacy that dominates people's thoughts about destiny. People think destiny requires fate. It does not. 

There is a general belief that IF God has a plan for you THEN that plan must be both immutable and unfailing. This does not follow at all. Trusting that God has a plan does not mean trust that this plan cannot be in any way changed by circumstances on the ground. In fact, in the Bible, you often see God changing His plan in reaction to human behavior. God intends Abraham to have a child of his own, an initially God's covenant only refers to the child of Abraham and Sarah. But when Abraham chooses to have a baby with Hagar, God makes a new covenant concerning that child, while still ensuring His original plan continues to proceed.

In Jonah, God PLANS to destroy Nineveh, but relents when Nineveh surprises Him with their penitential behavior. In Ezekiel (33), we are told that God responds to human behavior by adjusting His plans. 

God may have big plans for you, His intentions may be magnificent indeed. But as I see it, destiny is only something offered. It is hard fought and won only through struggle and work. Commitment is the cost of living out one's destiny. Why would the blessing of an extraordinary life come any other way? 

I think this comes with great romance too. One cannot deny the sense that some of us have that our spouse was somehow led into our lives. I feel God CALLED me to marry my wife, and CALLED my wife and I together. But I had to choose to respond to that call.And I have to work to be worthy of it, every day. You do not make your own fate, nor is destiny something just given by God and vouchsafed forever. Time and chance happen to all (Ecclesiastes), and whatever God gives you is not given to you with a guarantee of being free from struggle. Nor is the loss of one destiny the loss of all destiny altogether. God in the next moment may have a new intention, you can respond to and grab hold if you are lucky enough to see the opportunity and are apt to commit to that opportunity.

I end with a video that kind of sums up what I'm talking about here, it is from the film CAN'T HARDLY WAIT

Re-Post: The Double-Edged Sword of Apocalyptic Language

I am super busy and low on time today, so it is time for a re-post. Tomorrow, I will have something original, for sure:

One of the great spiritual 'advances' I've made in my own life in recent years was to become comfortable, really comfortable, with apocalyptic imagery and to come to a real understanding of it's value. When I talk of 'apocalypticism', I'm speaking of the kinds of images one finds in Zechariah, Daniel, and especially the Book of Revelation. When people talk about these books and the imagery contained therein, they usually focus on the prophetic aspect of the writing. But it is particularly the Combat Motif that has both bothered me, and intrigued me, for some time now.

The Combat Motif is the theme of there being some evil counter-force in the universe working against God. In contemporary Christianity this is imaged as something like a fallen angel. The idea of a devil is bothersome to most mainline protestants. We emphasize a juridical model of atonement, and so success or failure to receive salvation is based on the fulfillment of some moral demand: either in action or more commonly in terms of our beliefs. We are expected to do or believe something specific and our success and failure in life, at least spiritually, is based on us living up to this expectation. We believe in free will, and we want to take responsibility for our own actions. I am also inclined towards belief in free will and I'm big on personal responsibility. I don't like the possibility of giving someone the excuse 'the devil made me do it'. Plus generally speaking modern people don't like to sound silly or childish, like we believe in the boogeyman or something.

But as I've come to respect Eastern Orthodox visions of atonement, whereby Jesus Christ breaks the power of satan through his sacrifice, a healthier respect for the Combat Motif, and for apocalyptic language in general, has developed within me. I think that while we've recognized the danger of fleeing from responsibility, forgoing apocalyptic language altogether has robbed us of part of what we need to talk in a fulfilling way about the meaningfulness of life, the reality of evil, and even the glory of salvation. I wonder if part of the reason for the success of the more evangelical faiths, over the more mainline protestant and catholic movements, is because they are able to speak much more naturally about the cosmic battle between good and evil. By placing our own internal and social moral struggles within the context of truly cosmic forces within the universe, they speak to life as it is actually experienced by us. They have a phenomenological reach, if you will, that the more common denominations seem to lack. The reality is that the Combat Motif reaches back to antiquity, and it plays an important role both explicit and implicit throughout the Bible. This issue is big in my current unpublished book BREATH OF GOD. And many churches just don't do a very good job of really wrestling with its place in our lives.

William James once said that life 'feels like a fight'. I'd tend to agree with him.
Apocalyptic language continues to be relevant because it speaks powerfully to that fact. It can distort the nature of the fight, and it is a danger that we will spend so much time fighting monsters under our bed that we will fail to fight the ones in our own hearts. But without it, I'm convinced that the full measure of life as it is lived, and the actual meaning of life in the world, can be concealed. There is a reason it is called "revelation".

Battlestar Galactica Bible Study Week: 13

Season 4- Episode: “Six of One”

2 Samuel 12:1-7

The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. ² The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, ³ but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.

⁴ “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”

⁵ David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! ⁶ He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”

⁷ Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!

Jeremiah 20:7-18

You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived;
    you overpowered me and prevailed.
I am ridiculed all day long;
    everyone mocks me.
⁸ Whenever I speak, I cry out
    proclaiming violence and destruction.
So the word of the Lord has brought me
    insult and reproach all day long.
⁹ But if I say, “I will not mention his word
    or speak anymore in his name,”
his word is in my heart like a fire,
    a fire shut up in my bones.
I am weary of holding it in;
    indeed, I cannot.
¹⁰ I hear many whispering,
    “Terror on every side!
    Denounce him! Let’s denounce him!”
All my friends
    are waiting for me to slip, saying,
“Perhaps he will be deceived;
    then we will prevail over him
    and take our revenge on him.”

¹¹ But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior;
    so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.
They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced;
    their dishonor will never be forgotten.
¹² Lord Almighty, you who examine the righteous
    and probe the heart and mind,
let me see your vengeance on them,
    for to you I have committed my cause.

¹³ Sing to the Lord!
    Give praise to the Lord!
He rescues the life of the needy
    from the hands of the wicked.

¹⁴ Cursed be the day I was born!
    May the day my mother bore me not be blessed!
¹⁵ Cursed be the man who brought my father the news,
    who made him very glad, saying,
    “A child is born to you—a son!”
¹⁶ May that man be like the towns
    the Lord overthrew without pity.
May he hear wailing in the morning,
    a battle cry at noon.
¹⁷ For he did not kill me in the womb,
    with my mother as my grave,
    her womb enlarged forever.
¹⁸ Why did I ever come out of the womb
    to see trouble and sorrow
    and to end my days in shame?

Ezekiel 2:1-3:4

 He said to me, “Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.” ² As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.

³ He said: “Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have been in revolt against me to this very day. ⁴ The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says.’ ⁵ And whether they listen or fail to listen—for they are a rebellious people—they will know that a prophet has been among them. ⁶ And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions. Do not be afraid of what they say or be terrified by them, though they are a rebellious people. ⁷ You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious. ⁸ But you, son of man, listen to what I say to you. Do not rebel like that rebellious people; open your mouth and eat what I give you.”
⁹ Then I looked, and I saw a hand stretched out to me. In it was a scroll, ¹⁰ which he unrolled before me. On both sides of it were written words of lament and mourning and woe.

3 And he said to me, “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the people of Israel.” ² So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat.

³ Then he said to me, “Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.” So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.
⁴ He then said to me: “Son of man, go now to the people of Israel and speak my words to them.

Ezekiel 33

 Reflect on the Bible passages in light of the film.

What conflicts do we see in the Bible passages between the various leaders of Israel?

Compare this to the conflicts in the film.

How does Cara try to appeal to Laura to help her get back to Earth?

Does Laura owe Cara this? Why or why not?

Why does Cara try to get Laura to kill her?

How does Laura respond to these arguments?

Why is Jeremiah angry at God?

Why is Cara acting so crazy?

How do we see prophets ‘acting crazy’ in the Bible passages?

How might this have affected people’s ability to trust them?

Do you think people should trust Cara? Why or why not?

Why do you think God put them in this position?

What has Cara’s vision cost her?

What has Jeremiah’s vision cost him?

Why won’t Cara give up on her vision?

Why won’t Jeremiah?

What are the arguments around the Hybrids all about?

What are the messages she gives out?

Compare this to the nature of Ezekiel’s messages.

How do the Final Five function among the Cylons? What are the Final Five to them?

What does Cavil want to do to the Raiders?

How does this split the Cylons and why does it split them this way?

What is the substance of the conversation between the Final Five?

Reflect upon the conversation between Admiral Adama and Cara.

What does Sharon Boomer do for Cavil and what does this mean for the Cylons?

What is the irony in the conversation over the models and their lack of individuality?

How has Gaius’ vision changed?

Why do you think it has changed this way?

What has become of Gaius’ group?

How does Tory try to reach out to Gaius?

How does he turn it around on her?

Reflect on the issue of miracles in light of the episode.

How does Laura explain what is ‘really going on’ to Adama? How does Adama climb into Laura’s head? Reflect on all 

this.

How do the people try to appeal to Ezekiel in Ezekiel 33?

How does God turn this around on them?

Reflect on the causes and beginning of the Cylon Civil War.

How did the prophets exemplify Gaius’ ‘one essential truth’?

Reflect on Gaius and Tori’s relationship.

Reflect on Gaius expressing his love for God in the middle of their physical intimacy.

Why do you think Adama gives Cara the chance to find Earth on her own?

What is the substance of their conversation about death?