And The Oscar Goes To… (Well, It SHOULD Go To…)

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Jacob Sahms

I’ve seen more of the films this year than in any previous year. I’m still smarting from a film like The Artist winning a few years ago; I think it’s ridiculous that a retread remake like True Grit even gets nominated. But this year, there are some big movies with some clever direction and some big stories and issues to wrestle with – and none of that has anything to do with summer blockbusters!

So here goes: it’s a list that includes my who will win and who should win for the main awards. Sometimes, those aren’t the same thing. If you want to pop-off and follow a link to a review of one of them, I’ll wait!

Best Actress: Gone Girl’s Rosamund Pike (over Julianne Moore, Reese Witherspoon, Felicity Jones, Marion Cotillard) I imagine there’s some growing steam for Moore after the Golden Globe’s win, and it’s highly possible she should win, but I haven’t seen it. Instead, I’ll go with the so-normal-she’s-scary/here-comes-crazy turn by Rosamund Pike in Gillian Flynn’s adapted Gone Girl. Seriously, Doogie Howser doesn’t stand a chance [will that get riffed given that NPH is the host on Sunday?], and Ben Affleck didn’t know what hit him. I’ll never watch it again, but Pike gets my nod- and Flynn should win for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Best Actor: Birdman’s Michael Keaton (over Eddie Redmayne, Bradley Cooper, Steve Carrell, Bradley Cooper, Benedict Cumberbatch) I imagine Keaton will walk off with this one but I imagine Redmayne should. He’s been impressive since Starz’s Pillars of the Earth, and his turn at Stephen Hawking has been amazing in the clips I’ve seen. In fact, this is the one most likely to flipflop if I get to watch Theory this weekend. I’m still not sure how J.K. Simmons gets put in the Best Supporting Actor conversation; he clearly seemed to be the lead to me, over hapless (but solid) Miles Teller. For now, I’ll go with Keaton, who plays Riggan Thomson like his hair is on fire. As the director/producer/lead actor in his own screenplay, he’s so nuanced that he allows others to shine, like Ed Norton and Emma Stone (who may win in the supporting roles because of his performance). Funny, tortured, amorous, neurotic, Keaton’s Thomson does it all.

Best Animated Film: Big Hero 6 (over The Boxtrolls, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Song of the Sea, The Tale of Princess Kaguya) I know this isn’t a major, but I’m still shaking my head that The LEGO Movie wasn’t nominated. It was easily the best animated flick of 2014 – and it would’ve been a hoot to see Will Ferrell at the Oscars. [It’s sad that he may have had his best pre-old guy role shot…] But Walt Disney’s story of grief, pain, community, and heroism is the best of the rest; even if Boxtrolls has strong animated characteristics, it’s story is TERRIBLE. (And as a throw in, I’ll say that Best Animated Short nominee, “Feast,” is even better than Big Hero 6!)

Best Director: Birdman’s Alejandro G. Inarritu (over Richard Linklater, Bennett Miller, Morten Tyldum, Wes Anderson) I imagine that Inarritu/Birdman and Linklater/Boyhood will split: one will get Best Director and one will get Best Picture. I’m just not buying Birdman; in fact, I found it so mind-numblingly unwatchable the first time that I didn’t finish. But I wasn’t all that interested in Birdman until Inarritu’s innovative one-shot techniques made me feel like I was actually backstage of Thomson’s play and found it wildly entertaining. [I’ll be shocked if it doesn’t win Best Cinematography.]

Best Picture: Birdman (over Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Imitation Game, American Sniper). I thought Cooper was solid and that American Sniper was powerful. But I’m a fan of Michael Keaton’s and my respect for Inarritu has already been stated; the story of a former action hero-great who is now trying to make his way in the world of theater, to get back in touch with his purpose in life? This is a midlife crisis story that uses Inarritu’s one-shot cinematography and also delivers a story. [For the record, my biggest beef with Boyhood is that it settles for its “shot over twelve years” gimmick but it lacks mightily in the story department.] So, Birdman wins, but if I had my way, it’s the politically-charged, socially-proactive Selma that would be walking away with Best Picture. But would the snobbish Academy really allow back-to-back civil rights films (following 12 Years a Slave last year) to make it? Nope. They took that tension right out of the conversation by denying Selma a nomination. There’s always Best Song…

What I’ve seen (alphabetical order): American Sniper, Big Hero 6, Birdman, Boyhood, Gone Girl, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Judge, The LEGO Movie, Selma, Whiplash

Notable ones I haven’t: Foxcatcher, The Imitation Game, Still Alice, The Theory of Everything*, Wild*

Argue, debate, agree. What do you think should win? What will?

*= hopefully by Sunday! Check back for updates.

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On Mercy (Mustard Seed Musing – Lent)

Posted on February 18, 2015 by Jacob Sahms

I’ve guest-written this for Jason Stanley’s blog as he covers Lent daily on his blog. I highly recommend Jason’s writing – and the diversity of writers he’s recruited for this Lent. Go check it out!

Mercy. It’s not a word we hear frequently in today’s society. Judgment? Fairness? Crime and punishment?

Those terms are more comfortable in our black and white worlds. But in Psalm 51, David knows he needs mercy, even though he doesn’t deserve it, because the prophet Nathan pointed it out to him. He couldn’t see his sin on his own, but his ‘friend’ helped him recognize what he had done. In reality, David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed (2 Samuel 11). That’s why he’s here, begging for God to forgive him.

The story of transgressions and judgment of this Psalm remind me of the ‘modern day parable’ of The Judge. Judge Joseph Palmer (Robert Duvall) hasn’t forgiven his lawyer son, Hank (Robert Downey Jr.), for his teenage actions, but when Joseph stands accused of murder, Hank is the only one who will step in and defend him in court. The elder Palmer had rarely handed down mercy, but in this moment of truth, he desperately needs someone to compassionately represent him.

Mercy is that elusive characteristic, so much harder to grasp than peace or love (which are hard enough to act on, even when they’ve been defined). Mercy is that thing our hearts don’t understand until we really need it, because our lives are driven by in versus out, good versus evil, black versus white with no room for gray. Mercy isn’t getting what we deserve or what we’re owed but what we hope for when we know that we’ve been caught in the act, and found guilty. It’s the thing we desperately crave when we know that what we’re due is … horrible. Truly, if we fairly assess our own lives, as we’re called to during Lent, we’ll recognize that we’re all as guilty as sin, and only loving mercy can set us free.

But receiving mercy, that’s only the first step.

If we beg mercy from an all-knowing, just God, then we must move forward in faith that we’ve been forgiven, and that we’re called to show mercy to others. It’s because David is forgiven that he’s able to show mercy to others, notably Mephibosheth and Absalom; it’s because he experiences mercy that he’s able to extend it to someone else. (It’s also true that Joseph Palmer is able to extend it to Hank because he recognizes he’s received it first.)

So, who has shown you mercy? I imagine it’s more than God. I know my wife, my children, my parents, my coworkers- they extend mercy to me regularly. When I’m mean, or grumpy, or selfish, or (fill in the blank). I’ve been forgiven by the God of the universe who didn’t owe me that, but I’m also shown mercy by the people in my life who know what I’m really like, and love me anyway.

Do you know that you’re forgiven? Are you able to forgive others? May you extend mercy as you recognize how it’s been extended to you.

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Livin’ On A Prayer (Ash Wednesday Sermon)

Posted on February 17, 2015 by Jacob Sahms

Livin’ on a prayer. Bon Jovi, circa 1986, nailed it in the musically excellent department, chronicling an economically-challenged couple who work hard, stick with each other, and hold onto hope livin’ on a prayer. The album Slippery When Wet was one of my favorites as a teenager, because I loved the rock’n’roll vibe. The older I get, the more I think the song should be an anthem for our lives of faith, and in Lent, it takes on a whole new meaning.

In Lent, the Christian calendar urges us to repent. Tonight (or today, depending on when you’re reading this), we launch into forty days of reflection on the life of Jesus and the call to discipleship. Sure, at the end, we’ll arrive at Easter and we’ll celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from death and the victory of heaven over death. That’s done, finished, an actual reality.

But for forty days, we’re called by the pattern of the church year to consider how badly we need Jesus, how short we fall, and how sufficient the grace of God is. We’re called to consider how we’re supposed to live to be more like Jesus – and the end result is that we’ll recognize we can’t do it on our own.

We need help – we need God – we are in fact, at our most faithful, living on a prayer.

In Luke 11, Jesus’ disciples observe him praying, and one of them asks him to teach them how to pray. That’s where we get the Lord’s Prayer from: a disciple of Jesus saw that Jesus was praying, wanted to be able to pray like Jesus, willingly asked for instruction, and received the pattern of prayer from Jesus that we now use regularly on Sundays.

“‘Father,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.’”

Jesus gives says we should give God the recognition deserved, that we should pray for the kingdom of God to be a reality. That we should seek what we needed day by day; that our focus should be on being forgiven as we also forgive. That God would protect us from falling into evil.

It seems pretty simple but while the prayer ends there, Jesus’ teaching on the subject continues with a set of allegories on praying to God that would have worked for his hearers. He lays it out that they’re praying to God like a man asking a friend for bread to host sudden company, or a father who’s son asks for food. Jesus wants his disciples – remember, that’s us, too- to know that God wants to grant us what we ask for when we boldly approach in prayer.

When we pray like we’re taught to.

When we pray with boldness.

When we pray with our hearts turned toward God.

Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

That sounds a lot like Jeremiah 29:11-13, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

When we live on a prayer, God’s will for our lives become known most fully; when we live on a prayer, God gives us what we need; when we live on a prayer, we find God.

This Lent, for the next forty days, I want to challenge you to pray the Lord’s Prayer every day. I don’t mean to recite it, or mumble it, or read through it; I want to invite you to pray it with your whole heart, and ask God to use you for the kingdom of God.

This Lent, I want you to encourage you to pray the prayer, and I want you to see how God will use you, every day. Ask God to show you how you can be the hands and feet of Jesus to someone in your life. Maybe it will be one person who will be brought to mind as you pray about your needs and the needs of others. Maybe it will be a series of strangers who become people God shows you in a new way.

Jesus taught the disciples to pray, and then he taught them how to serve. It’s the vibe we get from Pope Francis, who says we should pray for the poor to be fed and then go feed them; it’s why I think we should pray “thy kingdom come” and then go out this Lent to be the kingdom.

Or to quote St. Augustine: “Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.”

May this Lent be a time where you are called to prayer, and may your prayers call you from your comfort zone to people who need to feel God’s love through you.

 

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The Homesman: Frontier Life Alone (Movie Review)

Posted on February 17, 2015 by Jacob Sahms

I’m a sucker for a western, so kicking back with The Homesman was an obvious option for an afternoon. Based on Glendon Swarthout’s novel, Tommy Lee Jones starred, directed, and produced this frontier drama that shines a light on what it was like for a frontier woman to survive but fails to make us care about the development of the characters. Hilary Swank stars as the spinster Mary Bee Cuddy (she’s all of thirty-one!) who agrees to transport three mentally ill women across the prairie, and forcibly enlists a claim jumper, George Briggs (Jones), to help her survive Indians and other frontier threats.

The work of Swank and Jones as actors can’t be judged too unfavorably, and the three women (Grace Gummer, Miranda Otto, Sonja Richter) they transport are interesting enough. But we’re just not allowed enough character development, or an entertaining enough plot, to actually feel moved by what happens. The film even throws Meryl Streep (always solid!), James Spader, and John Lithgow at us, but it’s just not enough to make us invested in what is going on here. The western depiction is solid but that’s not the same thing as actually making a movie that captivates. rating: rainy day it

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No Tears For The Dead: The Sins Of The Past (Movie Review)

Posted on February 17, 2015 by Jacob Sahms

no tears for the deadNo Tears for the Dead (or, The Crying Man in Korea) tells the story of Gon, a hit man who mourns the accidental death of a child when his crime boss sends him to kill the girl’s mother.  Korean action star Jang Dong-gun delivers as Gon, kicking, shooting, and stabbing his way through squad after squad of gangsters that his boss sends after him when Gon’s change of heart becomes known. American flicks like John Wick or the Indonesian film The Raid: Redemption come to mind as Gon decides to take the heat to his former running mates, on a path to rinse away the sins of the past with blood.

I’m not big on Korean films but this one came dubbed in English, and the remorse Gon feels makes for a compelling storyline. Of course, it can slide into a video game-meets- Steven Seagal film, but the nuances of how one can redeem oneself ultimately makes this a bit more interesting. Kim Min-hee plays the mother of the girl, Mo-gyeong, and her grief over her dead husband’s decisions and the death of her daughter make her a parallel figure to Gon. We don’t know if they will actually end up redeemed, or dead, but it makes for a pretty solid buildup to the final act.

Most of us have made a mistake big enough that we have regrets. Ultimately, how we handle that regret impacts our journey, our dreams, and our reality. For both Gon and Mo-gyeong, they can run, they can make amends, or they can fight. Their decisions as the film steams ahead to its conclusion will impact… everything.

If John Wick didn’t whet your appetite, then maybe the Die Hard skyscraper finale will do it. rating: borrow it

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Joe Abercrombie’s Half The World: Stand In The Light (Book Review)

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Jacob Sahms

The second in the Shattered Sea series, Half the World finds the hero of the first story, Yarvi, now serving as the minister of Gettland. Under his watchful eye are two principle characters, the feisty, violent Thorn and the peaceful, balanced Brand. The kingdom of Gettland is under attack, and Father Yarvi takes these two young warriors on a voyage of self-discovery and of ally-seeking. It’s a serious, sophomore follow-up to Half a King that had me breathless in its final act.

Setting the stage for the internal tensions of the characters, Thorn accidentally kills one of her fellow student-warriors, while Brand watches helplessly. But on their trip south to find allies of other ‘Viking’ tribes, Thorn finds herself trained to use her speed and cunning in battle by a shadowy, old swords woman and Brand finds that his struggle, to embrace peace or engage in war, will be tested while he serves on Yarvi’s ship. The voyage is long, and the enemies are many, but the tangled motivations of Thorn and Brand keep them just close enough to make things testy.

When the final lines are drawn for this chapter of the nation-spawning struggle that George R.R. Martin has been verbally proud of, we know that Brand and Thorn will have major parts to play, but Abercrombie guarantees that it won’t be quite what we expected. Drama, action, romance, and humor are all ingredients that he’s willing to blend to entertain us and grip our hearts: we want Thorn and Brand to succeed, because they’re broken but resilient, not perfect and good. They make decisions we might make when faced with the alternatives they face, and we they struggle with insecurity and doubt, not just well-armored warriors and conniving backstabbers.

I sought out the second book in this series after loving the original, and I came away mightily impressed. Too many ‘second’ books falter, playing off the original’s success and steering us toward a third; Half the World delivers with justifiable fury and power that made it potentially more worthwhile than even the first. rating: buy it

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Chef: Jon Favreau’s Love Affair (Movie Review)

Posted on February 15, 2015 by Jacob Sahms

Jon Favreau’s ode to food, Chef, was a delightfully fun (and simple) film that asks us whether we’re critics or participants, tearing down or building up, full of bitterness or full of joy. The film, which Favreau produced, directed, wrote, and starred in, boasts a cast of stellar talent like Dustin Hoffman, John Leguizamo, Robert Downey, Jr., Sofia Vergara, Oliver Platt, and Scarlett Johansson. But in the scenes that matter the most, this is Favreau’s love affair, and his passion bursts off of the screen.

Available now on Blu-ray, DVD, and VOD, Chef follows the fall and eventual rise of Chef Carl Casper (Favreau), who refuses to bend to his restaurant owner’s (Hoffman) whims and implodes. His implosion includes an expletive-laden rant at the critic Ramsey Michel (Platt), who merely proposes that Casper’s creativity has been dulled by his desire to please others. In a scene easily transposed to include an actor/director and a movie critic, Casper screams that Michel’s casual barbs hurt him, that he (Casper) cares about his creations, and that Michel has no idea how much work or effort has gone into what he’s done. This is one of the messages of the film: if we’re going to criticize, we should be prepared to walk a mile in the creator’s shoes.

But the film isn’t just about art versus criticism. It’s also about Casper reconnecting with what he loves via a food truck that he and his young son, Percy (Emjay Anthony), refurbish, with the help of Casper’s sous chef, Martin (Leguizamo). Their cross-country trip meanders, like the camera over the food creations that Casper labors over, mixed in with the technologically savant Percy’s Tweets about the food truck and where they’ll be on their ride from Miami to California. It’s this, the subtle blend of new-school technology and old-school food, that makes Chef’s story nuanced, but it really is Favreau who makes it delightful.

I’m no foodie – give me something good to eat and I’ll order the same thing again and again – but this was a quiet, beautiful movie. Casper and Percy reconnect because they work together, not because Casper lavishes his estranged son with gifts or ‘big ticket’ experiences. Casper and his ex-wife (Vergara) find reconciliation because he’s able to swallow his pride; Casper succeeds because his friends won’t abandon him as he reconnects with his dream. None of this is preachy; in fact, Favreau allows the audience to put many of these pieces together, for ourselves. Still, it’s a modern-day parable, and one that allows us to appreciate the journey as much as we appreciate the end.

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The Song: Free Chance At A Lyrical Love Story (Review & Giveaway)

Posted on February 13, 2015 by Jacob Sahms

I’m a big fan of City on a Hill’s romance/drama The Song, based on the book of Song of Solomon from the Bible’s Old Testament. That’s not to say this is a Biblical epic, or that folks who aren’t up on SoS will be lost. Truthfully, you  wouldn’t have to be Christian or Jewish to appreciate the film because the pacing, script and acting are that solid. And now you can read below about how to win a free combo pack of the DVD, CD soundtrack, and devotional book, Awaken to Love.

Jed King (Alan Powell of the Christian band Anthem Lights in terrific starting role) wants badly to be the musician his father was, but his father’s broken relationship with his mother has an even deeper impact, even if he can’t see it. At first, it seems hat everything will progress straight to happily ever after when he serenades and woos his one, true love, Rose (Ali Faulkner), the anchor of his life. Sure, King finds success on stage with a guitar in his hands, but he also wrestles with Shelby (Caitlin Nicol-Thomas), a tour mate with less-than-honorable intentions, and the life of a musician on the road.

Rose’s pregnancy causes a further strain in their relationship, and King loses his way on so many levels. The film’s intense struggle isn’t so much physical as it is emotional and mental, but it’s as well done for what it implies as what it shows. The wages of sin are death, Paul writes in Romans 6, but for King, they’re reaped in loneliness, desperation, frustration, and anger. It seems that the possibility remains that the Kings will never recover: where can grace come from with so many problems and so much hostility? Even if they forgive each other, can they ever be one again? Can love actually make a difference?

Post a message below – your favorite romance or drama about marriage/dating – I’ll pick a winner on Monday evening and ship you a copy of each (the DVD, CD, and book). 

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On The Move (Sunday’s Sermon Today- Gospel of Luke)

Posted on February 11, 2015 by Jacob Sahms

There are movies oodles of movies about traveling. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Airplane! It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Oh, and there are horror flicks, thrillers, and adventures about traveling – romances, too. But the film that comes to mind when I reflect on today’s scripture from Luke 10:1-12 is this: Home Alone.

Now, you ask: Home Alone, isn’t that about a kid staying home? Well, yes it is. But in the Macauley Culkin Christmas flick about robbers staking out what they believe to be an abandoned home, who find a very resourceful ten-year-old instead, there is the mother of all preparations for a trip… and the mother leaves her ten-year-old behind.

Seriously, how many of you have a checklist for travel? (My mother has one saved on her computer!) Snacks, check. Shoes, check. Book, check. But, if you’re me, you’re always forgetting a necessity, like prescriptions or toothpaste or a belt. In Home Alone, the McAllisters pack for Paris, but they forget their son, Kevin. He might not be the main thing that they should remember, but he’s close!

It’s a holiday, a vacation, a road trip, and they lose focus on what they’re supposed to be doing, and why they’re supposed to be doing it. They, my friends, are a lot like us!

In our scripture today, the first seventy-two disciples are sent out by Jesus, two at a time, to go to every place he would eventually visit. They go out on the buddy system, so that they’re supported, comforted, accompanied. They go to “warm up” those places for the arrival of Jesus, to get them ready for the good news that Jesus is preaching. They are heralds of the good news but they’re not bringing the main event, that’s up to Jesus.

Jesus tells them that “harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few,” that they are going out as “lambs among wolves” (10:2-3). Sounds peachy, doesn’t it? Sounds like the world itself is either disinterested, antagonistic, or willfully out to get them. But Jesus is sending out the seventy-two who get it, the seventy-two who want so badly to be like Jesus that they’re willing to risk it all. You’ve got to be pretty committed to be one of these seventy-two…

It’s not like Jesus has been selling this as highly entertaining, highly enjoyable work but then he lays out several directions for this road trip. He gives them marching orders, advice for the ministry, a way to progress in discipleship.

I wonder what it would look like if we put these things to practice.

1. Travel Light. Don’t take a bag for a second change of clothes is the gist of it, but it puts the focus on the mission rather than the stuff. How often do we set out with a purpose but get burdened down by the things along the way? I remember the difference in traveling after we had our first child. We were headed to the beach, and suddenly, a duffle bag packed with towels and swimsuits, and a bag with a computer and books, wasn’t enough. We needed an around-we-go, and diapers, and toys, and three times as many changes of clothes, and soon realized we didn’t have the right number of bags or the right kinds of things packed. The trip is the main thing, right? But we get stuck in the stuff. It happens to us all of the time in life, mistaking the career for the calling, the paycheck for the value, the effort for the time with family. Jesus wants his disciples to be clear that they are going out on a mission, that the stuff doesn’t matter.

2. Don’t Get Distracted. He goes so far as to tell them not to greet anyone on the road. Jesus is kind, but this doesn’t make him look too friendly, does it? Jesus’ corollary to #1 makes it clear that he knows his disciples can be like golden retrievers: “Food. Ball! Sleep. Cat. Bird! Food? Scratching. Outside!” Jesus knows that there are distractions beside stuff. Distractions like finances, destructive relationships, addictions, Facebook, phone calls, laundry, flights of fancy, temptation. Distractions that get in the way of the mission, that keep us from the mission.

3. Use Discernment. If the house they enter in town shows itself to be amicable to their work, stay; if the house is unfriendly, they should leave.  If the town is unfriendly, they should just keep moving. I’m very aware that dirt is not all created equal. If you could see the flowerbeds around our house, you would know that even within a pretty small space, the dirt can vary greatly; not all of it is good for planting. Jesus recognizes this truth about people and communities, too. So he tells them to not waste their time, their hot air, on talking to people about the kingdom of God who are not interested or willing to listen. How scary is that? Jesus is preaching the good news of the kingdom of God but he knows not everyone wants to get it, not everyone will get it now, and not everyone is worth the disciples speaking over and over again with no change. When I was younger, I used to think how sad it was for those people, and now I recognize that we must be alert to make sure we are not those people who “don’t get it.”

4. Don’t Mooch. (I love this!) Jesus tells them not to “move around from house to house” or not to rotate who they’re getting from. Maybe this isn’t the main directive of the mission, but Jesus says that the disciples shouldn’t move from house to house in search of a better offer. Jesus wants his disciples to be steady and honorable; to leave the house that showed hospitality and move around would have dishonored the initial host. It would’ve confused the issue about what the disciples were about, and kept some people from hearing the good news. So even if the bed was more comfortable or the soup was a little saltier, they weren’t supposed to move.

5. Do the good work of the kingdom. Heal the sick, and preach. Sure, Jesus gives the disciples a list of things to avoid, a list of things not to do, but he reminds them again, repetition repetition repetition, what they are supposed to do. They are supposed to heal first and preach second. They are supposed to do good and talk about Jesus later; they are supposed to take care of the needs of the people around them and use that as an introduction to talking about what Jesus was all about. What would it look like if we served first and preached second? Answering that question is why I’m so excited about things like our Society of St. Andrew’s potato drop on Easter. Yes, Easter is a high holy day: Jesus was raised from the dead! But what better way to celebrate what Jesus means to us than to do the work Jesus would do if he were here? If Jesus is in us? We’ll separate potatoes and distribute them to local groups to feed the hungry- and celebrate in word and song the beauty of the resurrection.

6. Remember Whose You Are. Jesus tells them that whoever accepts the disciples, accepts him, and whoever denies them, denies him. It’s not about them. Yes, Jesus is giving them the heads up that this isn’t going to go well all of the time, that this might not even end well for them, but he’s putting it all on himself. If they’ve taken up their cross to follow him, they know it will be rough, but Jesus is telling them that they don’t have to own it. If someone mistreats them it’s really because they’re upset about the changes that Jesus’ teachings would make in their lives: no one likes anyone meddling in their comfort zone. Jesus is telling them this to free them up from being angry (or sad) with the other person, but instead, to love those people and serve them freely. It’s Jesus’ people skills and insightfulness acknowledging that we never know what people are really wrestling with but we’re called to love them anyway, to love them as friends even when they act like enemies.

So the disciples go out. We don’t know exactly what they experience or who they encounter or how they’re received. We figure that it’s probably a mixed bag. But we know they came back – no one was lost – and then Jesus gives one more piece of advice, when the disciples return from the first road trip celebrating their victories, that reminds them about the first half-dozen, and prepares them to go forth for what will be a lifetime of ministry:

7.  It’s Not About What You Do But What’s Been Done. Jesus tells them it’s not about what they accomplish, what they do, or where they go; Jesus tells them it’s about the fact that they are beloved and forgiven in heaven. The disciples are celebrating the healing and the demon exorcising, getting caught up in the ‘look what we’ve done.’ And Jesus makes it about the mission (again) not about the success. Jesus makes it about following the process, not whether it’s an individual win or loss.

That’s the lesson I’m trying to teach my seven year old basketball team. A few weeks ago, they were practically doing cartwheels in the closing seconds of a game, having beaten another team. I called them together and told them, “Look, we don’t do that. We do our best, and win or lose, it doesn’t matter.” They looked at me like I was a little bit crazy, but then they nodded. They understood what I was trying to say: we’d win some, and lose some, but we needed to keep team and the process first.

That’s Jesus’ message throughout: the disciples are forgiven, loved, claimed, empowered, and called. It doesn’t matter what’s been said to them as long as they’re doing what they’re supposed to, as long as they stay focused on following Jesus, on the dust kicked up by their teacher’s feet.

Are you ready to go where you’re sent? Are you ready to be bold and faithful and focused? Are you willing to leave the unnecessary behind and follow Jesus?

Jesus is calling, empowering, and sending, but you can’t be a disciple and stand still. We must be ready to go.

We must be ready to move.

 

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Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day: Family Sticks (Movie Review)

Posted on February 10, 2015 by Jacob Sahms

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad DayThe night before his twelfth birthday, Alexander (Ed Oxenbould) wishes his family would experience the typical day of a middle schooler who isn’t “cool.” While most of what happens that day isn’t his fault, it’s still pretty… terrible. His dad (the always funny Steve Carrell) is interviewing for a job while caring for the baby; his mom (Jennifer Garner) butchers an editing job and infuriates Dick Van Dyke; his older brother (Dylan Minnette) can’t wrangle a driver’s license or his girlfriend; and his sister (Kerris Dorsey) is sick on the day of her big theater performance. No one’s day is going right, but it’s all pretty hilarious.

Director Miguel Arteta makes his first stab at a family comedy, after turns directing Jennifer Aniston in The Good Girl and the Michael Cera/Ed Helms crowd (Youth in Revolt, Cedar Rapids, respectively). Sure, there are a couple of more adult (or at least older kid) references, but for the most part, he shifts seamlessly into the world of Walt Disney with the full-length adaptation of Judith Viorst’s 1972 children’s book.

While the plot doesn’t resemble the book (much at all), it does build on the ideas about what makes a terrible day. Middle school and high school can do that to you; so can a negative boss or searching for a job in your forties after being laid off. The truth is that everyone has problems, and life is mostly defined by how you respond to them. For the Cooper family, the response is tied to family: they may be crazy but they’re who they (each other) have.

Recognizing how the family comes together to love Alexander, and to stick to each other regardless of the outcome, defines the film, and gives it the heart it has. Yes, it’s laugh out loud funny throughout (saving the kangaroo for last was a solid move), but it’s also a reminder that blood is thicker than water.

In the special features department, “Alexander… In Real Life” gives us a look at Viorst and her son of the eponymous name that sheds some light on what they’re like, and how the book itself came about; for all of the laughs within the movie, nothing pleased my crew as much as the “Delightful, Magnificent, Very Good Bloopers” complete with Garner and Van Dyke dancing. It’s PG so it did cover the bases and have a little bit for everyone – genuine Australian cowboys notwithstanding. rating: buy it

 

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