8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace
The greek word for steward is this oikonomos
oy-kon-om’-os; a house distributor (that is, manager), or overseer, that is, an employee in that capacity; by extension a fiscal agent (treasurer); figuratively a preacher (of the Gospel): – chamberlain, governor, steward.
This clip from the 1998 movie Les Miserables demonstrates this idea amazingly
Three significant things at work here:
Radical Hospitality
Radical Love
Radical Grace
May we all be good stewards of the grace God has given to us and practice radical hospitality, love, and grace to those we meet.
My five year old son has a problem. He has a serious Star Wars addiction. Now in the interest of full disclosure, I have a great love for Star Wars myself. I love watching him enjoy the movies and the games. I love listening to him talk about the virtues of using a lightsaber over a blaster. I even love the repetitive statements declaring how awesome the Jedi are. Its a blast sharing this thing with my son. It gives us this cool thing that we share in common that serves to build and the father son bonds of affection. Admittedly, I am grateful to have something in my life like this with my son.
I remember when I was a kid I was really into baseball cards for awhile. I collected any card I could get my hands on. Eventually my dad took notice and it became a hobby that we shared. While sometimes I wondered if it wasn’t his hobby more than mine, I still took comfort in the fact that my dad wanted to do something with me. He loved me and wanted to connect with me. I still cherish those times together when we would get a pack of cards and open them with anxious anticipation hoping there would be a rare find in the pack. Most of the time there wasn’t anything special in the pack…it was the time together that meant the most. I am glad that I have that with my son.
Thanks George Lucas. Honestly, I never thought I would utter that sentence after seeing the prequels, but it seems appropriate now. Thanks for creating something both my son and I love.
When you are a cynic like I am, it can be difficult to see the good in most things. I am naturally suspicious of people, places, things, and institutions. I see brokenness everywhere I look. However, I believe as a new creature in Christ, I need to have a more optimistic outlook on all areas as Jesus is not only in the business of redeeming me. He is in the business of redeeming all things. I need to be less cynical and more hopeful especially when it comes to the church. I spent enough time in the church to see a lot more brokenness than I would have ever believed possible, but the church is the bride of Christ and despite its flaws Jesus loves it unconditionally as a bridegroom loves his bride.
When I have a tough time remembering that good things do exist even in the church, I find that this clip from Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers helps me to refocus:
Hope this gives some hope to the cynics out there.
My son Colm and I have spent the better part of the week working our way through the original Star Wars trilogy. To this point, we have made it through episodes 4 and 5 and if I can find the DVD will make it through Return of the Jedi by the end of the weekend. I have to admit I am a proud father. It does not get much cooler than getting to share in his excitement as he experiences these movies as I did when I was kid. So far, my favorite observation of his…I guess maybe its more of question…is why did they freeze Han Solo in Chocolate. Admittedly I laughed out loud, but I also began to think about how I could possibly explain the difference between carbonite and chocolate. In his world, he has no experience with carbonite, but he knows exactly what chocolate is. After a few failed explanations, I finally gave up and let him continue to think Han Solo is is being transported to Jabba the Hut in frozen chocolate because carbonite makes no sense to him until I can find a way to explain it to him in a way that he will understand.
As I continued to ponder this, I began to wonder if God has the same problem with us. There is so much in life that we just can’t wrap our minds around and I think its because our frame of reference is so much smaller than God’s. Its question of the infinite (God) verses the finite (us). we do our best with what we have been given but the mystery is beyond us. I know for a lot of people that is an unsettling proposition, but for me it is a comfort. I don’t want to serve a God that i fully understand. I want Him to know infinitely more than me and I want Him to be infinitely more wise than me. I am content to live in the mystery. That doesn’t mean i don’t get frustrated, but it does means that ultimately I trust that God knows better than me and that one day I will understand as I hope one day Colm will know the difference between chocolate and carbonite. Until then…I gotta find Return of the Jedi.
I am a huge fan of the Rocky movies. I know there is a certain element of cheese to them, but there is no other character in movies that teaches us about having heart like Rocky Balboa. With every victory and with every defeat, Rocky learn about life and he learns that either winning or losing matters…its all about going the distance. With all that being said, I love this click from the latest installment in the series Rocky Balboa:
We all know what it is to have the world beat down upon, and get knocked down. The test of our character comes in what we do when we have been knocked down. We spend so much energy on trying to avoid those moments when we will get hit, but those moments are inevitable. How we respond is what matters. I think we can all learn a lesson from Rocky.
A quick survey of the world around us would show us that things are a bit…broken. Cornelius Plantinga Jr. wrote a book called Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin. In the opening chapter of the book he references the movie Grand Canyon to make a profound point about the world around us:
In the film Grand Canyon, an immigration attorney breaks out of a traffic jam and attempts to bypass it. His route takes him along streets that seem progressively darker and more deserted, The the predictable Bonfire of the Vanities nightmare: his expensive car stalls on one of those alarming streets whose teenage guardians favor expensive guns and sneakers. The attorney does manage to phone for a tow truck, but before it arrives, five young street toughs surround his disabled car and threaten him with considerable bodily harm. Then, just in time, the tow truck shows up and its driver – an earnest genial man – begins to hook up the disabled car. The toughs protest: the truck driver is interrupting their meal. So the truck driver takes the leader of the group aside and attempts a five – sentence introduction to metaphysics: “Man”, he says, “the world ain’t supposed to work like this. Maybe you don’t know that, but this ain’t the way its supposed to be. I am supposed to be able to do my job without askin’ you if I can. And that dude is supposed to be able to wait with his car without you rippin’ him off. Everthing’s supposed to be different than what it is here.”
How many of us have wondered down progressively dark streets in our own lives only to realize we are alone in the dark and in real trouble because we were looking for an easier way out? How many of us have said the same words or at least thought those same words spoken by the tow truck driver. The world we live in is more than just a little broken. Plantinga goes on to discuss in his book the affect of sin on humanity, the world, and all of creation for that matter. If you are looking for a good book on the power and influence of sin, then check out his book. I highly recommend it. Plantinga will challenge you to think about sin as more than just a wrong action. He will challenge you to think about sin as condition of the soul. I would also recommend checking out the movie Grand Canyon as well. Both are strong investigations into the human condition.
If you are looking for some inspiration this morning along with a bit of a chuckle mixed in with some nostalgia, check out this video from http://www.matthewbelinkie.com.
