Steve’s Blog

honest humility or another avenue for celebrity?

I am disappointed that play is not as acceptable for adults as it is for children.  I have two cousins, ages 4 and 2, who spend their entire days playing.  Whether it be a sport outside, make believe with toys or just coloring, they spend their time in some sort of play that doubles as an environment for discovery.  Play is how they learn and realize what the world is like around them.  Play for them is more than an escape or distraction, it is a lifestyle.  As a graduate student I am not trained to discover and learn through play.  We are finely tuned machines at discovery through analysis and research and play has become something we use to escape from our studies. For me, play has become the “suspension of reality” from my daily routine.  It provides an escape from the reality of all the work I have to do whether that be in school, work or relationships.  Luckily I have friends that participate in my two favorite styles of play; music and sports.  When we need a “suspension of reality” or a break from the rigors of our lives we can call on each other to play music or meet at a bar to watch a game.  Play is not as much a place of discovery, as it is for my cousins, but a time to rest from my daily worries.     

            I think that play has a tremendous role in theology for a couple reasons. One of my professors mentioned in class that faith is a process of discovery and play has a role in that development.  When we are able to open our horizons and suspend reality for a moment (as is common in the state of play) we open ourselves up to new avenues of experiencing God.  When our mindset shifts from learning in from a book to experiencing the world around us through play we are able to realize different aspects of the nature of God.  Play also helps strengthen community.  Play allows us to strengthen bonds by working together and unite towards a common goal or task.  As we grow closer as a community, through play or other avenues, we become more vulnerable to each other.  This vulnerability and willingness to share our lives with one another provides the space to see the reflection of God in the other.  Play absolutely has an important spot in theology because it opens up other avenues for us to see and experience the power of God. 

hey everyone!

We won’t be having our high school group during the 11am service because this will be Pastor Charles’ final Sunday before Lynne arrives.  So enjoy the festivities and I hope to see you all at the celebration after the service!

Cheers!

This is a new statue called “Jesus in Jeans” by Marcus Cornish that will be at Our Lady Immaculate and St. Philip Neri Catholic church in England.  The church had this statue made for their 50th anniversary because they “wanted a figure of Christ not in suffering but dynamic and welcoming.”  When I first saw this statue I was reminded of the statue of “Buddy Christ” in the movie Dogma and how we have now come full circle from satire to reality.  I can’t really tell from this picture but it doesn’t look like this statue has any of the wounds Jesus suffered at the crucifixion.  Granted this Jesus isn’t on a cross so the wounds aren’t necessary but he is still in a pseudo crucified position… or pretending to skateboard, I’m not sure.  

I try very hard to contextualize Christ and his teachings but is this going too far?  When people walk buy are they going to thing “hey, that’s a cool looking Jesus, we should hang out some time!” or will it be more along the lines of “silly Christians always trying to seem hip.  When will they lean that they can never be cool?”  If this statue makes people think more about Jesus (which it obviously is) and helps people in their journey of faith I’m all for it but I’m still not sure this is the best way of making Jesus more palpable to our context.

In other fun views of God, I present you with these two fun tid-bits.  The first is a video from the Michael Gungor band (a christian worship band from Denver) and breaks it down in a very refreshing way.  Sadly, some people objected to the message in this video and argued in fact that God does hate people.

and this is another awesome drawing from the artist Marc Johns, enjoy!

I’m watching the lakers vs. rockets and noticed that these two guys look like the same person.

Hey everyone.  Last week had a wealth of interesting and incredible discoveries for me.  It seemed as if everyday brought a new invention, thought or memory that I wanted to write about so I’m going to toss a couple out there for you to chew on…

The Espresso Book Machine.  Dare I say that this invention will revolutionize print media? This is a machine that will print and bind an individual book on demand in less than ten minutes!  With the rate that books are being digitalized (google books, kindle, etc.) this machine can conceivably have the entire library of congress on file and provide a person the opportunity to have an instant copy of any book.  Granted this might be a little idealistic, but it is possible that this machine, and whatever technology comes after, would mean a book would never go “out of print.”  This is an incredibly exciting advance in technology and makes me think that books and print media are not going to become obsolete  with time but integrated and more accessible. 

Artist Marc Johns always amazes me with his quick wit and simplicity.  I’ve been spending some time on his website lately and thinking more about the different aspects of “simple” images and humor. These are his words: “I generally aim to say as much as possible with as few elements as possible. My work often leans toward humour. Finding the humour in things often leads to finding the truth. I like to create absurd situations, by combining things together that don’t belong, or imagine what inanimate objects would say if they could speak.”  I highly recommend his “things with antlers” collection.

Mario Paint was one of my favorite video games for the Super Nintendo system and was one of the first places that I was able to explore writing and composing songs.  The game had different aspects of art (drawing, coloring, puzzles, music) all which cross marketed the nintendo family of products but the music aspect was my favorite.  I don’t know if this video was what the creators were expecting but I found it really entertaining.

I’ll post some theological/church thoughts a little later but these were the fun things from last week.