Sermon Pt. 1

Here it is....comments encouraged.

Matthew 9: 10-13. “Doctor, Doctor, Give me the News”

In three verses there sure is a lot to talk about. These words of Jesus are powerful, but once you begin to grasp the historical and political contexts, the message of Christ is all the more scandalous. I’m going to explore the historical context first, then, I’ll bring us right up to today. I hope you don’t get too bored, but I plan to show you how people really haven’t changed in 2,000 years, how we’re still fighting the same fights, and that Jesus words are still as true today as they were when they left is lips. So here we go.

1. Setting the Scene/The What
Matthew’s gospel informs us that Jesus was sitting and eating dinner with other guests. Some translations use the word “reclining”. (interpreters bible, New American Standard Bible) That word reclining gives us a bit of a different picture- Jesus wasn’t having a power lunch, he and his disciples were guests- he was hanging out. And with whom? Tax-collectors and sinners. Today, the IRS isn’t a very popular institution and taxes really don’t make much sense to me, but at least they’re under the guise of honesty. In Jesus’ context, tax-collectors were some of the most hated people on the planet. Here in the Roman system, called “tax-farming”, rights to tax over a certain area were leased out to individuals who could afford it for a flat fee. Local aristocrats who obtained the rights would then try to collect more than the fee in order to profit by the arrangement, with an obvious potential for abuse. (New Oxford Annotated Bible) The actual TAX-COLLECTORS were sort of like underlings who were faced with lots of pressure to bring in as much money as possible and were thus despised by the populace. These are the people Jesus kept company with, verse 10: “And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting (reclining) with him and his disciples”

Thoughts

1. My buddy Jeremy got married this past weekend. I'm starting to catch myself thinking about reception decorations, help! Seriously, it was a lovely weekend and i'm happy for the Ventresca's.

2. Saw Pirates 3. Basically, see my Spider Man review below and substitute pirates for super heros. Too much too much too much, ugh. They just added plot elements and expected everyone to know what they were (like the pieces of 9, what is that?) I couldn't keep up with all the backstabbing. Whats the deal with trilogy's man? The matrix- 1st one, one of the best movies of my generation. The other two? Bad news. Same goes with Pirates. Spider Man 2 suffered the same fate, I hope Shrek doesn't.

3. I'm currently reading "The Cost of Discipleship" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whew, it's tough. Makes me feel like a weenie Christian.

4. Thats all for now, more thoughts later this week hopefully.

5. Oh ya, i'm preaching on Sunday. I'll post my sermon in sections, comments welcome. I'm also hoping to post some questions after Sunday for my congregation to check out. Aren't I trendy!?!?!?!?!?

Updates.

-last weekend confirmed 27 seventh graders into our church. yes!
-last weekend, moved out of apartment as our lease was up.
-this weekend, attending former roomates wedding in Camdenton, MO.
-tomorrow, summer intern starts.
-tonight, picking up best friend from the airport, as he's been teaching in France for a year.
-preaching at our church, June 3.

i'm pooped. not much room for blogging right now, sorry.

New Project

2 things.

One, head over to www.espngod.blogspot.com to see something new, join me!

Howie, i've got a reply waiting in the the "edit post" section, and I just want to do a good job with it. Hold tight!

Later.

Spider Man 3 Review

(warning: quasi-spoilers ahead)

I'm proud to say I was part of the biggest box office opening weekend in history, and at $11 for a ticket, I certainly did my part. I was pretty excited about Spidey 3, and the entourage of friends from church and other various acquaintences totaling about 20. We went to the 10:10pm showing on "The Mega Screen" that our Galaxy theatre has. I'm pretty sure you could see this thing from space, so that was awesome. The line was literally to the parking lot, it was insane. I'd like to reccomend www.fandango.com for ticket purchasing, very convienient.

Ok, onto the movie. All in all, I was entertained and glad I saw it. That being said, I do have some thoughts.

Part of what made Spider Man 1 and 2 so great is that even though comic book movies are ridiculous, they treated them seriously. Dr. Octopus was one of the best villains ever, because they gave him dignity by showing more than him scaleing buildings and robbing banks (although that was really cool).

But Spider Man 3 doesn't do that. It has developed similar strategies as the latter Batman Movies, or as I like to call it: X-Men syndrome. IT'S ALL TOO MUCH. Rather than having 3 villains with 3 plots that didn't really get the proper time spent on them, why not have one AWESOME main villain, like Doc-Oc with Harry Osbourne as an ongoing sub-plot? I just thought that Sandman, Venom, and Hobgoblin were all too cool to have just thrown them together, and not really do any of them justice. Also, this movie is a little too self-effacing, and the cheese factor was just too high. There's one montage that spoofs "stayin alive" and Peter Parkers looks exactly like the dude from Brighteyes.

Ultimately, there was no way I wasn't going to like this movie. However, it's definately my least favorite of the Spider Man's so far, and I hope they do at least one more to redeem this cheesy effort. With record setting weekends, you know they will.

The latest Beard Salute

In what is I believe our 3rd or 4th installment, i'd like to salute Baron Davis' beard. The Golden State Warriors point guard has worn a goatee for a while, but really is lettin the beard rock this year, and it's working. The Warriors are in the 2nd round of the playoff's, and pulled off one of the biggest upsets in NBA history beating the 1 seed Dallas Mavericks as a number 8 seed.

Good job Baron, and keep the beard lookin fresh.