Jesus in the Snow

We’ve all laughed (or felt disgusted) at people seeing the face of Jesus on toast, in a water stain on a door, or in a clump of kudzu hanging from a telephone pole.  Many people see the face of Jesus in the photograph displayed on the web pages below.   The story behind the photograph may or may not have actually happened; it is likely to be merely an urban legend.  Some never see the face, just blobs of black and white.  One person pointed out that this is the way the world is: Jesus is always here among us, some see Him, some never will.  Once you see Him, you will always see Him.

http://www.rejesus.co.uk/site/module/unexpected_faces/P7/

http://jestkidding.com/kids-corner/jesus-in-the-snow/

Another story of the origin of this picture:

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-173272

Playing With Matches

"Translating the gospel for young people amounts to entrusting them with matches, for it gives then access to holy fire, which puts the church at risk; what if young people ignite the church?" Kenda Creasy Dean, university professor, Presbyterian youth minister.

Some links talking about this idea:

http://www.firelighters.org.uk/history.php

http://www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/Social-Issues/Journal-of-Lutheran-Ethics/Issues/January-2004/Beyond-Platitudes-ReIgniting-the-Churchs-Vision-for-Children-and-Youth.aspx

http://www.christianstudy.com/data/nt/acts_c02_v13a.html
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/church.must.educate.young.people.in.leadership/29849.htm 

Definition: Sanhedrin

In yesterday’s post on the Rich Young Ruler I said the it was possible that he was a member of the Sanhedrin.  The word is often translated as “council,” and when presented as “Sanhedrin” is a direct transliteration of the Aramaic word and the Greek word synedrion.  The word seems to have begun in Greek and then passed into Aramiac and, in Greek, means “together” and “seat,” so, “to sit together.” The Greek speaking Jews called it the gerousia, “the Assembly of the Ancients.”

The Sanhedrin was a council of judges who ruled in matters of a strictly Jewish nature.  The Romans held all real political power.

Jewish tradition says that the Sanhedrin began with Moses and his council of seventy elder (Numbers 11:16) but the first undisputed mention of the gerousia is in The Antiquities of the Jews, (XII, iii, 3) by Josephus, in his discussion of the reign of Antiochus the Great (223-187 B.C.).

The Rich Young Ruler

The incident in which the Rich Young Ruler asked Jesus what he must do to gain eternal life is familiar to many Bible readers. (Matthew 19:16-30; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-30)  None of the gospel writers explains exactly who the young man was and none tell what became of him after he left the encounter with Jesus.

1.     He was a Jew because he declares that he knows the Commandments and has kept them all.

2.     He was a young man, probably in his twenties or thirties.  Neaniskos νεανίσκος (“young man”)

3.     The man is described as very wealthy.  The words sphodra σφόδρα  (“great,” “much”) and plousios πλούσιος (“rich,” “wealthy”) are used.

4.     He was either a Pharisee or a follower of the Pharisee party.  The Sadducees did not believe in life after death.

5.     He is said to have been an archon ἄρχων (“leader,” “official,” “administrator”).  This may imply that he was a member of the Sanhedrin.

6.     He was not a hypocrite; he observed all the commandments.  He really wanted to know how to gain eternal life.  He did not like the answer he received.

The young man had a works-based idea of salvation, “what must I do … ?”  and Jesus knew it.   Jesus gave the man a task which he could have performed.  The task pointed out the one stumbling block for the man: his refusal to give up his control of his own life, his refusal to submit to God.   He loved his position and his power more than he loved Jesus.  He worshipped a different god.  (Exodus 20:3)

Several comments with varying insights and viewpoints on the Rich Young Ruler.

http://www.jesuswalk.com/lessons/18_18-23.htm

http://www.middletownbiblechurch.org/reformed/matt19.htm

http://thegourd.blogspot.com/2009/07/story-of-rich-young-ruler.html

http://www.whatsbestnext.com/2011/09/why-did-jesus-tell-the-rich-young-ruler-to-sell-all-that-he-had/

A Christian Rapper

This link will take you to a video, "I Neva Seen," by the Christian rapper, DJ Dragnet.
http://www.youtube.com/user/djdragnetmusic?feature=pyv&ad=5557960915&kw=christian&v=8ybBHViuaHo&lr=1

Film Comment: Catch That Kid

Be very careful to screen the movies you let your children watch.  Just because a film is labeled as a “children’s movie” does not mean it is actually a fit film for them to see.  Children do ingest the ideas and worldviews of the things to which they are regularly exposed.  Just think of how quickly they pick up and begin to use “bad words” from adults.

Catch That Kid (2004) is a remake of the 2002 Danish film, Catch That Girl , and is an almost scene to scene copy of the original film.  Both are billed as “kid-friendly” thrillers.

Catch That Kid stars Kristen Stewart (b. 1990, California, USA) who was thirteen at the time the film was made.  Stewart is best known for her role as the young daughter in Panic Room (2002) and in the Twilight Saga films, as Bella Swan, a human teenager who falls in love with a vampire who was born in 1901 and made into a vampire in 1918.

The plot of Catch That Kid is actually quite simple.  Thirteen year-old Maddy (short for Madeline) is a talented young rock climber whose father suddenly needs a terribly expensive experimental surgery  for which the family has no resources.  She recruits two thirteen year-old eighth-grade boys (both of whom love her, of course) to help her rob an impregnable bank using their computer and mechanical skills.  The plot is thickened because Maddy must also babysit for her one year old brother on the night of the robbery.

The movie is touted as a fun “kid-friendly thriller” and it does have thrills and suspense.  It also has plot holes, logical inconsistencies, silly slapstick level humor, and glosses over or skips entirely legal consequences which would be caused by the events depicted.  It also contains a science fiction element with technology not yet available and especially not available in 2003.   What this all means is that the events in this film could not actually happen.  The children would have been captured, injured, or possibly killed.

Several of the reasons why this film is inappropriate for children include:

1.     Number one, the children rob a bank, committing a major crime.  One of the boys opines, “I wonder if we can finish the eighth grade in prison.”

2.     The children engage in mild profanity.

3.     The children lie to adults to manipulate them and obviously enjoy doing so.

4.     Maddy manipulates a bank executive to steal his access codes.  In doing so, she commits theft of intellectual property.

5.     Maddy lies to both of the boys to get them to help her.  She tells each of the boys that she loves him, manipulating his emotions.

6.     Maddy has to babysit her one year old brother on the night of the heist.  Since she cannot just leave him at the house, she takes him along on the robbery, thereby exposing an infant to great danger.

7.     Maddy’s mother lies to keep the three twelve year olds out of trouble.

The film seems to teach children that, as long as everything works out well in the end, it is acceptable and even smart to lie or to steal or to endanger an innocent.  What you want is more important than what is right.  The glorification of the self, the essence of this fallen world, the essence of sin.

Active for Jesus

"... when churches focus on keeping young people active for Jesus, we may forget to teach them how to be present with Jesus."  Kenda Creasy Dean, youth pastor, university professor, Presbyterian.

It is possible to become so busy for the church or even "for Jesus" that one becomes fixated on the business of being busy.  The activity can become an idol,  distracting us from God.  We cannot earn God's favor,  it is a freely given gift.  The activities are not wrong, and may even be productive, but more pleasing to God is obedience and what the simple Brother Lawrence called "the practice of the presence of God."