I believe I’ve shared this song before, but here is a recent rendition of it thanks to the Community Coffeehouse’s 25th anniversary concert.
There’s something wonderfully ambiguous about this song by Jason Gray and Andy Gullahorn. It captures something vital by being unable to capture it (if that makes any sense). It’s definitely a song appropriate for Advent but in a way that might be just enough out of our reach.
The cinema isn’t the only media releasing trailers for hotly-anticipated properties. We’re just a few weeks away from what could be the final series of Sherlock on PBS. Here’s a just-released trailer, packed with interesting imagery and intriguing dialogue.
It feels like the game has changed, indeed.
Today brought a pair of major movie previews whetting appetites for next summer. The first is Spider-Man: Homecoming, the first full-movie story for Tom Holland’s take on Peter Parker.
The stakes are high with this one, as it’s the third Spider-Man reboot of my adulthood. The hope is that they’ll keep the character in high school a little bit longer than previous cinematic iterations.
The other, more exciting for me, trailer that dropped today was for War for the Planet of the Apes. The two previous entries in this series have been better than I had hoped. So I’m hoping that Woody Harrelson’s presence doesn’t distract, as over-the-top characters are tricky when played by well-known actors.
I’m hoping that there will be some other cinematic goodies before Thursday’s premiere of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Regardless, these trailers are wonderful teases for what is about to happen in the world of the movies.
At the encouragement of a priestly friend I am trying to let Advent be Advent and Christmas be Christmas. So I’m trying to decorate slowly, sing carols bit by bit with maybe a little more thought to chronology. Tonight’s good walk from downtown to a friend’s house for dinner became my first real listen of the season to Andrew Peterson and friends’ Behold the Lamb of God. Here’s a performance of the concerts opening song, “Gather ‘Round, Ye Children, Come.” A great way to prepare and be in the season.
It’s been cool getting to witness the writing of Dave Eggers, one of my favorite novelists, come to life on screen. Sometimes its the script (Away We Go). Other times its a movie based on a story (Promised Land). And sometimes, if you’re lucky, you get a movie based on a novel (most recently with A Hologram for the King). Now, this spring, we finally get The Circle. In many ways, it’s the exact opposite of Hologram, which is good because that movie didn’t get much airtime or box office draw at all. Big names in this one, though. And for all of the flaws of the thriller genre, the novel is still an engrossing read. Here’s the trailer.
I decided to “celebrate the season” this week by watching the extended versions of The Hobbit. No small task, mind you, particularly when you are well-versed with the story (and when FX or TNT seems to air the theatrical versions every other weekend). The best part of the extended versions is the addition of the quiet moments that a longer cut affords. Here’s one of my favorite moments from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. It finds Bilbo in Rivendell and having a potentially awkward conversation with Elrond.
Christians around the world are now two Sundays into the season of Advent. These four weeks before Christmas are set aside to help believers reflect on the waiting done for Jesus’ incarnation as we eagerly anticipate his return.
I heard to “first Sunday of Advent” sermons last week. The first dealt focused on Isaiah’s “irreconcilable” imagery:
He shall judge between the nations,
and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks. . .
It was a sermon that tended towards social gospel and towards working towards the reality pictured by the prophet’s words.
The second sermon from last Sunday was rooted in the (particularly American) difficulty of waiting. Like the first sermon, the second spoke words that are not untrue. But they left me a little wanting when trying to make sense of the season of hope. Both lost an amazing opportunity to bring listeners into the very story we are a part of in any way beyond simple hope and waiting. If we are to look at the first coming of Jesus as a way to understand how to wait fittingly for his second coming, I can’t help but feel the missed opportunity.
I partly blame N. T. Wright for this. In his recent book, The Day the Revolution Began, Wright argues that there was a lot going on in the period of time prior to the birth of Jesus, that the knowledge that God’s presence hadn’t returned to the Temple in a significant and pronounced way meant that the exile for sin was not really over. We often treat the four hundred year period between the Old Testament’s close and the New Testament’s opening simply as a period of silence. What if there was more to it than that? What if we aren’t good and faithful Anna and Simeon, aren’t as responsive as the shepherds and the magi, are more like little Herods protecting our own kingdoms more than anything else? What if Advent is more difficult than it is delightful?
Peter Leithart recently wrote about Advent and our approach to it, how we understand what was going on in history and how to think about our own place in time. He writes:
Advent isn’t supposed to soothe us. It doesn’t teach us to be stoic in the face of the irreparable damage of the world. It doesn’t teach us to be piously hopeless. Advent celebrates the Creator’s arrival to repair the damage of sin, judging and making new. Advent comforts because it promises final restoration, justice, and peace. Advent encourages us to persevere in trials and injustice because it demonstrates that God has pledged to make all things new. Advent unveils a God so determined to fulfill his purpose that he did not spare his own Son but freely delivered him up for us all.
As I write this at breakfast on the second Sunday of Advent, I’m curious as to what I will hear today, how the story of waiting for Jesus is brought to bear in this second stanza of the season. We are called into a great story. But we are often called out of powerful and twisted narratives that God can use Advent to set right.
You can read the rest of Leithart’s Advent thoughts here.
(image from http://nwbc-tosa.org)
That 25th anniversary show at the Community Coffeehouse continues to bless the web with good music. Here’s Jill Phillips singing about wisdom, rooted in the book of Proverbs.
A few days ago (in connection with Doctor Who), I mentioned the dearth of British television for the 2016 calendar year. That dearth is slowly but surely coming to a close. We’ve got the Doctor Who Christmas special. But we’ve also got the return of the fourth (and potentially final) series of Sherlock to enjoy. Here’s a quick teaser that I’m sure some fan out there has on infinite loop.
This past Sunday was the start of the Christian season of Advent. It’s a good an interesting concept (particularly for someone not raised in a liturgical church). The time is often couched in the concept of waiting, particularly in how difficult the task of waiting can be for American addicted to instant gratification.
Here’s a helpful video about the entire “church calendar,” an approach to time and timing that begins with Advent, divides at Pentecost, and ends with Christ the King Sunday.
Over the next few days and weeks, I might share some simple thoughts and reflections on the season, particularly in using the calendar as a connection to the greater biblical story.
Space Enough, and Time 