Morning Musing: 2 Timothy 4:3-4

“For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear. They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We live in a day when two competing trends are holding sway in our storytelling. The first is the fact that we love stories with happy endings. We want heroes to win and bad guys to lose. The second trend is our belief that there really aren’t any bad guys. In order to prove this, as we have made stories about all the heroes, film studios hoping to make some more money have started taking characters who were villains and attempting to rehabilitate them by having them star in stories as the sort of good guys. A recent and highly anticipated film on Disney+ not only puts these trends on display, but also reveals how silly this trend is. Let’s talk today about Hocus Pocus 2 and Disney’s loss of any kind of a meaningful moral vision.

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Morning Musing: Matthew 28:19-20

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

The day is almost here. We’ve been waiting for it for what seems like ages. It almost seemed like it was never going to arrive. Three more sleeps and we will wake up to all of the energy and excitement of…the first day of school (imagine loud cheers and applause in the background). What? Did you think I was talking about Christmas morning? Well, minus the whole Jesus thing, the first day of school is kind of like Christmas morning for parents. Don’t get me wrong: I love my boys. But the consistency the school schedule brings back to our lives is awfully nice. And, I know we’ll be counting down to the end of school with the same energy and excitement on the other side of the school year, but for now, we’re just going to enjoy this moment to the fullest. The start of school in a couple of days, though, got me thinking this morning. This is one of the times of the year the church can really shine. Let’s talk about why.

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Digging in Deeper: Philippians 2:4

“Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

In a famous children’s story whose original form and meaning makes absolutely no sense in our modern culture, Peter Pan and the Lost Boys lived their lives in the blissful world of Neverland where they had an endless stream of adventures uniquely suited to tickle the fancies of young boys which worked out just fine because they never grew up. In Neverland you remained locked in childhood forever. The whole thing is made to sound terribly fun and romantic; something that everyone should want for themselves. By the time you reach the end of the story, though, you are left with the sense that in spite of Peter’s seemingly unending bliss, there is something he’s missing out on that would be an even grander adventure than he’s known before: growing up. In the culture of its day, the story was a reminder that while childhood is a wonderful time, it was not only necessary but good to grow up and experience the wonders of the world waiting on us there. Somewhere along the way, though, that final moral was lost from the story, and we embraced the supposed virtue of youth with gusto and have made living in a perpetual state of adolescence a goal worth achieving. I say all of that to make sense of the observation that the dream of Peter Pan is alive and well. We are living in a day when a great many of the movies being made are an attempt by filmmakers and moviegoers alike to relive their childhood adventures. Along the way, the younger members of Gen X and the older Millennials are inviting their kids into their adventures. I got to experience a taste of this last night as I watched the latest Sonic the Hedgehog movie with my boys. Let’s talk for a few minutes this morning about what I saw and heard.

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Morning Musing: 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

“Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

The heart of the American spirit is a desire to be fully in control of our lives. We want to be able to be the ones who accomplish whatever needs to be accomplished. We want to go where we want to go, lay our hands on what we need to get by, and stay as long as we desire. We want to have no one in charge of us, but to be our own masters. From the standpoint of our culture, that kind of thing is presented as noble and good. It is the desirable end for all people to be striving to reach. But what if there is a hidden cost to this way of life? What if there is a whole underbelly of problems that can wreck the whole thing? What if there was a better way? I’ve started reading a book recently that seeks to pursue these very questions. I’m nowhere near finished with it, but it’s been rumbling around in my mind enough that I want to get some thoughts out on digital paper. This morning, let’s spend some time talking about a fairly new book from author Alan Noble, You Are Not Your Own.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 12:19

Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, ‘Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay,’ says the Lord.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

What do you do when you can’t decide between two options? If possible, you choose both. This past week I finished watching a miniseries and finally watched a movie that first came out a couple of months ago. I had always planned to write a review of both once I finished watching them. I hadn’t planned on finishing both in the same week. And yet, as I have gone back and forth on which one to write about first, it became clearer and clearer that they both covered a whole lot of the same theological ground, although from different directions. Trying to treat them separately just didn’t make sense. Today, then, we are going to span two totally different media universes and talk about the recently completed Marvel series, Moon Knight, as well as the fairly recent latest offering from DC Comics, The Batman, and see how two different visions of the world reveal the Gospel is still the greatest vision of reality there is.

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