The connection between Wall-e, Eve(a) and the Righteous Branch continues in my thoughts.
The plant changes everything.
As soon as Eve sees the plant, she hides it, but only to protect it. She is concerned only with the 'directive.'
Wall-e protects Eve because he loves her as she protects the plant...but he does not know why she does it. He only knows that he loves her.
And when she leaves, he must follow.
The plant motivates everyone to get out of their chairs and live again.
See how many parallels to Advent you can find in this story.
Showing posts with label righteous. Show all posts
Showing posts with label righteous. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Ordinary 21A Matthew 16:13-20 Who is this guy anyway?
Well, I've said that many times. Who is this Jesus anyway? What in the world does he expect of me and how does his life lived 2000 years ago relate to mine.
In a class I've been teaching recently, my students decided that Jesus must have been killed because he was just too good. I agreed. That was one reason. As Plato said hundreds of years before Jesus, the world could not handle a truly righteous (good) man. We couldn't. What happens when we meet someone whose behavior makes ours look bad? We usually hate them.
When someOne came to earth long ago and behaved in a way that made everyone around him look bad, many around him decided he must die.
In this passage known as Peter's Confession at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asks his disciples "Who do the people say that I am?" If Jesus was living today, he could just simply Google his name like the politicians do to see what people think of them. However, he asked for hearsay...didn't he? Or was he probing to see if his disciples had "gotten it" yet that he was more than just a good buddy to take fishing.
Peter's confession echoes throughout history: through the Basilicas to the Camp Meetings...from the priests to the baptized babies...from the mountains to the waters...from the prisons to the palaces..."YOU ARE THE CHRIST THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD."
No other words have shaken the foundations of the world as these did. Yet if they shook the world and continue to shake them, then why is our world not changed?
In a class I've been teaching recently, my students decided that Jesus must have been killed because he was just too good. I agreed. That was one reason. As Plato said hundreds of years before Jesus, the world could not handle a truly righteous (good) man. We couldn't. What happens when we meet someone whose behavior makes ours look bad? We usually hate them.
When someOne came to earth long ago and behaved in a way that made everyone around him look bad, many around him decided he must die.
In this passage known as Peter's Confession at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asks his disciples "Who do the people say that I am?" If Jesus was living today, he could just simply Google his name like the politicians do to see what people think of them. However, he asked for hearsay...didn't he? Or was he probing to see if his disciples had "gotten it" yet that he was more than just a good buddy to take fishing.
Peter's confession echoes throughout history: through the Basilicas to the Camp Meetings...from the priests to the baptized babies...from the mountains to the waters...from the prisons to the palaces..."YOU ARE THE CHRIST THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD."
No other words have shaken the foundations of the world as these did. Yet if they shook the world and continue to shake them, then why is our world not changed?
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Lent 2A John 3:1-17 Ask a question and get a sermon
Dontcha love it when you ask a question and get a sermon?
Nicodemus was probably coming to talk theology with another rabbi. Instead of a nice intellectually stimulating theological conversation he gets a challenge to live a changed life.
He finds that Jesus is more than a teacher and Nicodemus needed to believe in more than signs and more than his religion. You see the Pharisees had constructed a system so precise that one didn’t really need God. He just needed to follow the laws, the rules, in order to be religious slash righteous. The Pharisees formed about 400 years before the opening of the NT. They decided that they need to make this Jewish religion something that could be practiced without a Jewish country or king since they lost all of that. So they constructed a system that could be followed whereever a Jew lived. They also accepted the prophetic writings as Scripture, something their Sadducee counterparts did not. The Pharisees are actually the open-minded ones of the day. They believed in miracles, angels, resurrection. The Sadduccees believed in none of the above, only the law, the first five books of the Bible.
Nicodemus has been living this lifestyle all of his life. He is so righteous, so squeaky clean, no one could find a thing wrong in his past to use against him. He could have run for president. He has worked hard to get to be where he is: one of the leading teachers of the Jews…and hear he finds this guy who has come from no where (Nazareth) and has flocks of followers and performs miracles! It’s like if you were a famous concert pianist and had worked all of your life to be the best and ran into a guy from the back woods who could play and charm audiences with no music training at all. How would you feel?
Nicodemus tells Jesus there is no way he could do what he does without God. A good observation…but see Nicodemus thinks Jesus is just a fine teacher. He doesn’t realize he’s sitting there talking to God himself. It didn’t even cross his mind.
Signs become quite the negative issue in John. Those who seek after signs have a serious lack of faith.
we think we have all the pieces put together and then we find someone like Jesus. He is unlearned, untrained and we have studied all of our lives to know the answers. How in the world does God use someone like him? And what about me?
If Nicodemus is not good enough for the kingdom of God, then who is?
It’s not enough. Then what is?
All of my righteousness is as filthy rags. It’s being born again. What in the world is that? You ask, like Nicodemus did. How can a person enter his mother’s womb and be born? Wesley said this of being born again, “Inwardly being changed from all sinfulness to all holiness.”
Nicodemus was probably coming to talk theology with another rabbi. Instead of a nice intellectually stimulating theological conversation he gets a challenge to live a changed life.
He finds that Jesus is more than a teacher and Nicodemus needed to believe in more than signs and more than his religion. You see the Pharisees had constructed a system so precise that one didn’t really need God. He just needed to follow the laws, the rules, in order to be religious slash righteous. The Pharisees formed about 400 years before the opening of the NT. They decided that they need to make this Jewish religion something that could be practiced without a Jewish country or king since they lost all of that. So they constructed a system that could be followed whereever a Jew lived. They also accepted the prophetic writings as Scripture, something their Sadducee counterparts did not. The Pharisees are actually the open-minded ones of the day. They believed in miracles, angels, resurrection. The Sadduccees believed in none of the above, only the law, the first five books of the Bible.
Nicodemus has been living this lifestyle all of his life. He is so righteous, so squeaky clean, no one could find a thing wrong in his past to use against him. He could have run for president. He has worked hard to get to be where he is: one of the leading teachers of the Jews…and hear he finds this guy who has come from no where (Nazareth) and has flocks of followers and performs miracles! It’s like if you were a famous concert pianist and had worked all of your life to be the best and ran into a guy from the back woods who could play and charm audiences with no music training at all. How would you feel?
Nicodemus tells Jesus there is no way he could do what he does without God. A good observation…but see Nicodemus thinks Jesus is just a fine teacher. He doesn’t realize he’s sitting there talking to God himself. It didn’t even cross his mind.
Signs become quite the negative issue in John. Those who seek after signs have a serious lack of faith.
we think we have all the pieces put together and then we find someone like Jesus. He is unlearned, untrained and we have studied all of our lives to know the answers. How in the world does God use someone like him? And what about me?
If Nicodemus is not good enough for the kingdom of God, then who is?
It’s not enough. Then what is?
All of my righteousness is as filthy rags. It’s being born again. What in the world is that? You ask, like Nicodemus did. How can a person enter his mother’s womb and be born? Wesley said this of being born again, “Inwardly being changed from all sinfulness to all holiness.”
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Lent 4C Luke 15:1-32
Lent 4C Luke 15:1-32
Please note this is not a complete sermon as the others were. I’m simply posting some thoughts and notes before I complete the sermon.
Luke 15:1-7
I have never understood the parable of the lost sheep until I heard a preacher preach it a couple of years ago. His name is Tim Green & he teaches at Trevecca Nazarene University. He illustrated the lost sheep this way:What does it mean to leave the ninety-nine and go search for the lost sheep?If you were the security guard for a high dollar car lot, and you noticed that one car was missing from your one hundred…and you left the lot unguarded in the most crime-infested part of town to look for it…then you would understand the search for the lost sheep.
Luke 15:8-10
A woman loses a coin…she has ten silver coins…now this I can understand. I remember losing a 20 dollar bill once. I think it went down the seat in the car. Never found it. Whoever bought the car must have been happy…I also lost a cell phone down the panel of my van once. See, I understand losing stuff!!!
Luke 15:11-32
The crown jewel of Luke 15 must be the prodigal son story. I know there are tons of messages in this little passage, but what I keep coming back to is the older brother.
I grew up in the church and worked hard on my righteousness…and to understand God’s grace, I must understand that God loves all of us the same…nothing I can do will make him love me more or less…yet God rejoices when one that has left returns…
Lord, I want to rejoice…and remove my jealousy…for I have been the older sibling.
Please note this is not a complete sermon as the others were. I’m simply posting some thoughts and notes before I complete the sermon.
Luke 15:1-7
I have never understood the parable of the lost sheep until I heard a preacher preach it a couple of years ago. His name is Tim Green & he teaches at Trevecca Nazarene University. He illustrated the lost sheep this way:What does it mean to leave the ninety-nine and go search for the lost sheep?If you were the security guard for a high dollar car lot, and you noticed that one car was missing from your one hundred…and you left the lot unguarded in the most crime-infested part of town to look for it…then you would understand the search for the lost sheep.
Luke 15:8-10
A woman loses a coin…she has ten silver coins…now this I can understand. I remember losing a 20 dollar bill once. I think it went down the seat in the car. Never found it. Whoever bought the car must have been happy…I also lost a cell phone down the panel of my van once. See, I understand losing stuff!!!
Luke 15:11-32
The crown jewel of Luke 15 must be the prodigal son story. I know there are tons of messages in this little passage, but what I keep coming back to is the older brother.
I grew up in the church and worked hard on my righteousness…and to understand God’s grace, I must understand that God loves all of us the same…nothing I can do will make him love me more or less…yet God rejoices when one that has left returns…
Lord, I want to rejoice…and remove my jealousy…for I have been the older sibling.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)