Movie Review: Inception

In a word: INCREDIBLE. Though I'm still restling with the concepts and the questions, this film is probably the best I've ever seen. If you know me and movies, this is no small statement. A good movie is hard to come by, a great film even harder. It takes a lot to make it on my top 100, and must rank fairly highly in a number of categories including the music, the cast, the chemistry of that cast, the performances, the story, the ending and its ability to inspire, challenge and emotionally connect. Inception did ALL of that.

For many people, the Matrix delivered in many of those aspects. It did for me. Everyone left the theater looking up and around at the people with them, wondering if they were really awake or trapped in the Matrix. It was fascinating. It brought up that one question: what is real? But of all the questions or concepts raised in the Matrix, it all revolved around that. Powerful, but limited. Inception opened an entire Pandora's Box of concepts about reality, dreams, creativity, inspiration, hope and ideas. "What is the most resilient entity in the world? Is it a virus? An intestinal worm? No. It's an idea. Once planted, an idea can grow and spread and survive almost anything." This is just one of the many concepts into which Dicaprio and crew delve in the movie.

In the Matrix, when Neo asks if he can dodge bullets, Mopheus tells him that when he's ready he won't even have to dodge them. The concept of this changed and changeable reality is fascinating, but it's in a computer essentially. In Inception, it goes farther. It's all in dreams. Not only can you alter that reality. You can construct absolutely anything you want. Creativity is limitless. Time is no different. As in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, it's very different inside this other realm. Just 10 minutes of dreaming seems like an hour in the dream and it's multiplied if you go into a dream from within the dream.

As with Avatar and the Matrix before it, this movie delivers on absolutely new and unique visuals that blew me away. The cast is all-star. Dicaprio delivers a performance between his ingenuity in Catch me if you Can and his madness in the Aviator, with a bite of something new that is insired by Chris Nolan's Batman and the grittier aspects of Bond. Chris Nolan chose Han Zimmer for the score (incredible) and 3 of his best actors from the first Batman movie (Ken Watanabe, Michael Kane and Cillian Murphy), besides rising star Ellen Page and a fast-maturing Joseph Gordon-Levitt (3rd Rock from the Sun, 10 Things I hate about You, Brick) and old school Tom Berenger. The evil Picard clone from Star Trek: Nemesis even joins the team.

The movie is hard-hitting, deep, thoughtful, confusing (without being impossible) and absoluting stunning in every way. They filmed it in six countries. I don't recommend it for anyone who clings too tightly to reality or takes heavy anti-psychotic medication, but to anyone with imagination and curiosity, it could easily be the best film you see this decade.

Triennium Recap

If you've never been to a Presbyterian Youth Triennium, find a way to go! As a youth, I attended in 2001, and it was one of those most amazing experiences of my life. The attendance has dwindled in recent years from over 7,000 Presbyterian youth (many presby variations) from all over the country AND internationally to a mere 5,000. These high school youth descend on Purdue's campus in West Lafyette, IN every 3 years and it's mayhem.

I went again in 2007 as a small group leader. The experience was also awesome, though the drama and music at the worship services was confusing and distinctly subpar. This year... not so. Again, I went as a small group leader and every aspect was incredible. The lesson plans were great, the training was more streamlined. The worship was PHENOMENAL. The band was fantastically talented and the drama flowed well, illuminating the small group scriptures (the story of Esther) each day. Best of all, the preaching absolutely rocked the house. Bruce Reyes-Chow opened the week and really delivered. There were several more great sermons and messages from international attendees, including an earthquake survivor from Haiti with his story of child servitutde and rescue.

The week culminated in the final worship with Tony Campolo preaching. Easily the most inspiring and moving sermon I've ever heard. I laughed hard, I cried, I was so moved I was ready to go sleep on the streets with the homeless and proclaim the word in prison and congress. It was wonderful. If I'm able, I'm going to repost his sermon here.

Triennium is a wonderful experience. If you're an incoming freshman in high school through graduating senior the summer of Triennium, you can go as a youth participant. If you're 21 or older, you can go as a group chaperone from your home delegation as sent by your presbytery or as a small group leader. If you're between high school and 21, you can still go on work team. This is incredibly hard work, setting up events and equipment, etc, but very rewarding. The next Triennium will be in 2013. Get in touch with me or your presbytery office for more info.

It’s Who You Know

I worked for an urban non-profit in Richmond, VA, that among other goals, was striving for racial reconciliation. One day, a friend of mine, who is black, was explaining to a group of interns what it really means to have black friends. He said, “It’s not enough to have one black friend. You have to have two black friends… and they have to not like each other.”

He brought up a valid point. For many Christians, racial harmony is idealized personal hope of ours, but we make token personal daily efforts towards the realization of that goal (i.e.: I sometimes vote for black political candidates; I once went on a mission trip somewhere they don’t speak English; I occasionally listen to Gospel music; I play tennis with the Korean kid in my gym class; I had a crush on the Swedish foreign exchange guy in Western Civ.). While these are certainly steps in the right direction (mostly), it’s often much easier to just not make the effort.

In Acts, chapter 6, they were having disputes between the Jewish Christians and the new Gentile members (a minority at the time). They were worried about food distribution and equality. What was their solution? They appointed leaders to be fair distributors (administrators). What’s interesting is the list of names of these new admins: Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolaus. Now if your Greek and Hebrew is as rusty as mine, it may take you a minute. None of those names are Hebrew. They’re Greek. Yup, every single one of the people the Apostles chose to be one of the new administrators of policy (after much prayer) was a minority. The fascinating thing is that for all the times in Acts that "many were added to their numbers," this is the only place that even priests were converted. Racial reconciliation can have powerful consequences.

What does this mean for you? For your church? Maybe it means that to gain a real perspective on things, you need to go put yourself in places where you are the minority. Maybe it means you need to visit a place where you’re the one with the strange accent and funny way of dressing, and I don’t just mean leaving Nashville for Newark for the weekend. Maybe your church needs to appoint leaders on session who represent your smaller groups (youth, children, elderly, handicap, single people, people who read the newspaper or this blog). Or perhaps, just inviting people from the neighborhood next to your church or holding your worship service at the soup kitchen once a month. The answer could very well be right under your nose.

A recent video from Improv Everywhere shows a humorous way one man tried to broaden his experience and those in a small town in my own state:




What are you doing to bring this part of the Gospel to life in your own church?

B@d W*rds W# S@y

I recently read a very interesting blog post on Taking the Lord's name in vain specifically, but also more generally on the bad things we say, including cursing or shouting substitutes for explatives. The author bemoaned both those who are ultrasensative to such phrases, as well as the silliness of those phrases. The most interesting part was on what it truly means to take the Lord's name in vain...

Christians take God’s name in vain the most

When people say “Oh my God,” they don’t even think about it. Sure, it’s rude. But what does it really mean to take God’s name in vain? I think God gets way more P.O.ed (cuss word ititials are dumb too) from Christians who sincerely take his name in vain. How do we do it? By showing up to church and praising him while we curse our neighbors. By sincerely asking God to do things that He has said he won’t do. By creating a false idol and calling it “God.” By worshipping God so He’ll give us more stuff. By calling ourselves “Christians,” which has the name of God in it, and not acting like we follow Christ. And God’s up there saying, “Holy shrimpcakes, you’ve got to be kidding.”

When it comes to cussing, maybe it’s not the words that come out of a man’s mouth that’s wrong, but the cause of it in his heart. If I can get so mad at the ATM that I let out a string of curse words at it, something is wrong with my emotions, and my mouth is just a symptom.

But instead of doing the hard thing by not asking God for stupid crap that’s bad for us, or getting our emotions under control, we do the easy thing and tell some new Christian that now that he’s a Christian he’ll need to stop swearing and “talk nice” so he doesn’t offend the delicate sensibilities of other Christians. We get riled up about non-Christians using the word “God.” But when you realize that Christians are the biggest abusers of God’s name, you know that we should really shut the smurf up because we don’t have any place being offended.

Great graham crackers.

SHY in the Rink

This week, the High School youth headed to University of Denver to go skating since it's been over 95 for a few days. Hopefully when it's cooled back down a bit in two weeks, we'll head back to Eisenhower for SHY in the Park. We had 15 youth come out tonight. Here are 14 of them and Terri!

Greenday

Brought to you by: The WellGrounded Life

On this Greenday, I thought I'd a little levity with a word on nutrition from another blogger. I've made the point before that food choices should be made primarily for reasons of faith and stewardship of the earth. Here's some news on choosing foods according to what will or will not give you a heart attack (all in good fun, but also true)...

Below is “The Last Word on Nutrition,” which combines the results of many independent scientific studies.

The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Canadians, British, Australians or Americans.

The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Canadians, British, Australians or Americans.

The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Canadians, British, Australians or Americans.

The Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Canadians, British, Australians or Americans.

The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats, and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Canadians, British, Australians or Americans.

The Ukrainians drink a lot of vodka, eat a lot of perogies and cabbage rolls and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Canadians, British, Australians or Americans.

Conclusion: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

Word on the Street

Tomorrow is SHY in the RINK! All high school youth, come on out to Joy Burns Arena at University of Denver. The public rink is downstairs from the hockey rink. We'll meet at 6:30pm, Wed, July 14th and skate until around 8pm. Bring $5 (and skates if you have them) AND any friends you wanna see fall on the ice.

The Rise of The Christian Left

A couple of years ago, a professor of mine in seminary in a class on Evangelism in the Congregation made an interesting point… Many ultra-conservatives in America are concerned about two problems: the rising secularization of their nation AND the immigration problem (specifically from across our southern border). He made the case that perhaps the best way for them to stop worrying about “problem” A was to stop seeing “problem” B as a problem at all. He made the observation that so many of our illegal immigrants are highly religious in their background and culture that they may in fact be the basis for a resurgence of faith in America.

So when The New York Times published an article recently addressing the surprising religious fervor in the Democratic party, it was less surprising than it should have been, but it raised some new questions about those implications on our two-party system.

The author of this new article in the Times posed the question, “Which political party’s members are most likely to believe that Jesus will definitely return to earth before midcentury?” You might have guessed Republicans, but you’d be wrong. Here’s what Charles M. Blow had to say…

“On the surface it may seem surprising, but, in fact, it’s quite logical. Blacks and Hispanics, two highly religious groups, are a growing part of the Democratic Party. A June 2009 Gallup report found that blacks and Hispanics constituted 30 percent of the party…

According to a Gallup report issued last Friday, church attendance among blacks is exactly the same as among conservatives and among Republicans. Hispanics closely follow. Furthermore, a February Gallup report found that blacks and Hispanics, respectively, were the most likely to say that religion was an important part of their daily lives. In fact, on the Jesus question, nonwhite Democrats were roughly twice as likely as white Democrats to believe that He would return to earth by 2050…

Welcome to the Religious Left, which will continue to grow as the percentage of minorities in the country and in the party grows.

People often ask whether the Republican Party will have to move to the left to remain viable. However, the question rarely asked is whether the growing religiosity on the left will push the Democrats toward the right…

For the most part, it seems to have made its peace with the mishmash of morality under the Democratic umbrella, rallying instead around some core Democratic tenets: protection of, and equality for, the disenfranchised and providing greater opportunity and assistance for the poor.

The unanswerable questions are whether these highly religious, socially conservative Democrats will remain loyal to a liberal agenda as they become the majority of the party and their financial and social standing improves. Or whether Republicans will finally make headway in recruiting them.”

Then again, as Blow points out, this could all be a moot point, if those in either party are right about the return of Christ being so soon…

YouthToob

If you haven't checked it out yet, there's a great new site up... YouthToob. It's got funny videos for youth groups. It's content appropriate to high schoolers and relevant to teens, college-age and young adults. It's a great way to segue between activities, lead off a discussion or simply waste time. There are goofy Jesus-dubbed movies, inspirational clips, comedians and more. Some are funny, some are moving and some really make you think. If you have video suggestions, send them my way and I'll get them added...

Eres Todo Poderoso

This is the youth singing Eres Todo Poderoso (You are all-powerful) on the roof of our hotel in Antigua at the end of our mission trip to Guatemala this summer...

Thanks to Greg for filming this.

Feed my Sheep

Just as in the days when Jesus was trotting around in his robe and sandals, as a faith, Christians love to focus on the "DO NOTs" of Scripture. Do not kill, do not steal, do not dress inappropriately and do not watch The View (that one really should be in there, if it's not). The Do Nots can be very hard to interpret sometimes. However, I like the "DO's" of Scripture. DO justice, LOVE kindness and WALK humbly with your God. FEED the hungry, CLOTHE the naked and VISIT the sick and in prison. Yup, I love those.

Two weeks ago, the Youth of Wellshire got back from BUILDING homes for the homeless. And last night, our YAX (Young Adult Christians) went to New Genesis downtown to FEED the hungry men at the shelter. Several young adults came to help prepare the caseroles on Sunday after church and then we took those casseroles, salad and desserts down to the shelter. Nine of us served dinner and ate with the men at New Genesis, sharing our stories and our food. We hope to go back again some time.

If you or a young adult you know would like to get involved with the ministry oppertunities for service, mission, fellowship and fun, contact Brian, Associate Pastor of Youth & Young Adults at: bdaoust@wpcdenver.org or search for YAX (Young Adult Christians) on Facebook.