Marley & Me

Thankfully, both my wife and I are big 'dog people.' Our family owning a cat is about as likely as Doug Pagitt enjoying a MacArthur sermon: aint happening. The other night, Alicia and I grabbed the movie "Marley & Me" from Redbox, and it was surprisingly good. I am usually annoyed by so-called 'chick flicks,' not because of the mushiness or romance, but because the portrait of love is so unrealistic and idolatrous. This movie is much more realistic though. Part of what I appreciated about the movie was the realistic portrait of finding contentment in this difficult life. This is an enduring struggle even for believing men and women. Our hearts are always looking towards "what's next." "If only I had my license. . . were in high school . . college . . . married . . . had children . . a good job . . nice house . . a better job . . or even if not better, a different one because the new has worn off. . . another child. . . .a nicer house. . . car. . boat. . a wife who listened to me like my co-worker Ms. Folly. . . a new city. . and it goes on and on. Satan would have God's people distracted and consumed with tomorrow rather than obedience and faithfulness in the present. So I commend the movie (although admittedly cheesy in parts), and I especially commend the daily battle of cultivating contentment in Christ and living for today.

John Piper interviews Matt Chandler.

Easter

"The Christian gospel announced in Corinth was not simply a message about a new sort of spirituality, a new level of spiritual attainment to which people could aspire. The message was about an event in world history, as a result of which a new day had dawned, foreshadowing the dawning of God's final, eternal day. . . . We still need to remind ourselves today that the resurrection remains the foundation of all Christian existence. Without the resurrection, we are simply left with another variation on the general religious themes that circulate the world. With the resurrection we believe, with Paul, that the new day has dawned. God's new creation has begun."
--N.T. Wright, Reflecting the Glory, 170-72

"The gospel of Jesus Christ announces that what God did for Jesus at Easter he will do not only for all those who are 'in Christ' but also for the entire cosmos. It will be an act of new creation, parallel to and derived from the act of new creation when God raised Jesus from the dead."
-N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope, 99

--Read this article on Easter by the Bishop

It's Friday

I linked to this last year on Good Friday, but its worth posting again.

"Advertising has transformed commodities into objects significant not because of their intrinsic material, utilitarian, or esthetic qualities, but for their expressive power. Working mainly through images and associations, advertising invests commodities with power to relieve anxieties, gratify fantasies, carry meanings, express feelings, and confer moral and spiritual value. By emphasizing the nonmaterial properties of commodities and associating them with the psychological and emotional needs and desires of consumers, modern marketing has mystified consumption in a far more fundamental way than Santa Claus ever did. Perhaps the most obvious way in which the religious function of advertising can be discerned, it skillfully plants a sense of inadequacy, insecurity, sin, guilt, or shame, for which it then presents the remedy (redemption, salvation, relief, absolution) in the acquisition of certain products. In consumer capitalism one gains salvation by the acquisition of products."

-from the chapter "Christmas, the festival of Consumer Capitalism" in Religion and Empire by Richard A. Horsely