The Burr in the Burgh

I want to commend to you a fabulous new biography of one of my favorite authors Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor.  O’Connor wrote novels, lots of short stories and a barrelful of correspondence.  Her works were published in the 1950s and 1960s.   One of her most powerful and well-known stories is A Good Man is Hard to Find.  At the time of their publication, her works caused some stir.  She was one of those writers who was hard to ignore and hard not to form a strong opinion about.  Most readers either love her or hate her.  She was an enigma to many in her hometown of Milledgeville, GA where her works were considered very unladylike.  She fits into a literary camp often known as Southern Gothic.  Writers like O’Connor skillfully describe human beings in all of their grittiness.  When asked once why Southern writers seem to be so adept at writing about freaks, she said, “because we are still able to recognize one.”  That’s one of my favorites quotes of hers and she is an exceedingly quotable person.  Though she came from a polite and sheltered background, she had a remarkable ability to perceive human corruption.  But why tell about the unpleasantness of human experience?  She explained that “to the hard of hearing, you shout and for the almost-blind, you draw large and startling figures.”  Artists reveal.  Flannery O’Connor felt it was important to uncover human hypocrisy and moral sickness and that is what she strove to do.  Miss O’Connor died in 1964 of lupus, a horrible autoimmune disease.

Is Christianity a Western religion? Would you say that the Christian Church is waning? Watch this short video of Dr. Douglas Rutt from Concordia Theological Seminary as he addresses these questions.

What if someone told the story of the Prodigal Son with an inventive twist? The story of the Prodigal Father. What would that look like?

In 2005, the masterful German director Wim Wenders, well known for the fabulous Wings of Desire, gave us Don’t Come Knocking starring Sam Shepard. The story was, in fact, written by actor Shepard.

Don’t Come Knocking is the story of Howard Spence, famous movie western star, who in late middle age realizes that he’s squandered his life on boozing, womanizing and whatnot. Seeking some form of redemption or inner peace, he sets off on a journey to reconnect with family and two adult children he never knew.

One of the adult children, a daughter who is named Sky and played by Canadian gem Sarah Polley, has gone to the place where her father was last seen to stand watch for his return.

The other child, a rebellious alt country musician named Earl, doesn’t want to ever seen his father and wishes he were dead.

Howard Spence is wrung out by years of wild and wanton living. He goes to the nearest thing he has for a home looking for . . . he’s not exactly sure what he is looking for at first. Forgiveness? Reconciliation? He knows he’s not worthy to be called anyone’s dad or husband. What he finds is not what he expected, but is better in every way.

I have a thirteen year old son who is interested in film-making and has begun directing and producing his own homemade digital masterpieces. I told him he should watch this movie if only for what he calls the “camera-ology.”

Tenderly told, beautifully shot, exquisitely performed; don’t miss Don’t Come Knocking.

photo credit: jae michie

Remember the Tom Cruise flick, Minority Report?  It was based on the classic story by Philip K. Dick.   Set in the near future, the police were able to detect future crimes and stop them from happening.  The BBC will soon air a new series with a similar premise called Paradox. It actually sounds quite promising.

The lead director of the series, Simon Cellan Jones, said the series “will leave the audience asking themselves dark, complicated questions about fate, the future and who controls it.”

Read the BBC story here.

Who controls the future?  That is a very penetrating question.  All people are anxious about what tomorrow brings.  There is only One who is worthy to open the seal to the future.  And that is the Lamb who was slain (Rev. 5).  We can rest knowing our future days are in God’s hand.

Excited about the soon to premiere new Star Trek flic?  Check out this perceptive article by Steve Daly in Newsweek.  When the short-lived series first hit the airwaves in 1966, the Cold War war was angrily blazing away.  But produce Gene Roddenberry broke the mold with his (mostly) optimistic view of the future.  The general thrust of the science fiction to come out of the 50s and 60s was generated by fear.  Fear of the bomb.  Fear of communists.  Fear of spies.  Fear of desegregation.  And so forth.  Giant ants, spawned by nuclear mishaps, were attacking people.  Well camouflaged pod people were walking among us and destroying our way of life.  Space aliens were invading American cities.  Most books and films of the genre at that time were cautionary or envisioned a dystopic future for mankind.  Roddenberry challenged us to see a different possibility, a future earth where the races got along, working side-by-side, a future earth without war or poverty or swine flu pandemics.  I said earlier that he was “mostly” optimistic because the dread of the other was still evident in the episodes which encounter extraterrestrial hostiles.  The Romulans and the Klingons were probably supposed to reflect the Soviets.  Their swarthy appearance and overt bellicosity, however, makes me think of Islam.  As a Christian, I know that Roddenberry’s idealistic humanism was naive, but that doesn’t mean I cannot appreciate the important and meaningful way he impacted the culture with his ideas.

The newest incarnation of the franchise is expected by some to renew it and by others to betray it.  I know there are lots of regular Americans who have never liked sci-fi, fantasy, superheroes, horror, the more speculative type of literature.  If this upcoming film is just an interstellar car chase, just Die Hard set in space, it will be a blockbuster but will miss out on the opportunity to ponder bigger topics of human identity the genre, at its best, excels at.  Or I could be wrong and it might help to popularize and mainstream what we dweebs have long loved.

As a kid, I had friends who were really into a fantasy role-playing game called Dungeons and Dragons. I like Tolkien but was never into D & D. If you were a gamer or knew gamers, you need to check out a terrific book called The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons and Growing Up Strange.  Author Mark Barrowcliffe tells a lively story of being a misfit kid obsessed with fantasy games.  Lots of young teen and tween boys in the 70s and 80s who were socially awkward and had vivid imaginations found refuge in these games. There was lots of controversy in some corners because folks felt that D & D introduced kids to the occult.  What I thought was fantastic about this book is how well the author portrays the confusion and general awkwardness of being an adolescent boy.

Concordia Lutheran High School , Fort Wayne, IN
April 22, 2009
Text: 1 Cor 12:12-20; John 15:1-8

Just to introduce myself: I am Pastor Scott Stiegemeyer.  I’m the Director of Admission at Concordia Theological Seminary.  I go all over the country talking to young men about becoming pastors and young women about becoming deaconesses, but that is not why I am here with you today.  I am here with you now to proclaim the good news of free salvation through Jesus Christ.

I understand that this is Fine Arts Week.  You are emphasizing the

importance of the fine arts: such as music, and painting and drawing and sculpture or graphic design, and poetry or drama or creative writing…

I also noticed, according to my Google calendar that today is Earth Day.  Many in our culture recognize this, not particularly from a Christian perspective.  Many in the green ecological movement are subject to various neo-pagan ideas about the earth and the place of human beings in the ecosystem.

As Christians, we can participate in these things in our own ways because we understand that God is the Creator of the planet and all that lives on it, everything from the mighty sequoia forest to the mold that grows in between the tiles in your bathroom.  Everything from the tiniest microbes that live their whole lives on particles of dust inside your pillow cases to you yourselves, young men and women, the pinnacle of God’s creative work.

God is the maker of all things, visible and invisible.  The earth and all that is in it belongs to the Lord.  We do not really own anything.  Not even our bodies truly belong to us.  We belong to God.  Everything we have is really a gift from God, or you might say, on loan from God.

God is a giver.  He gives us our bodies, our skills, our talents, our abilities and all of our resources.  Christians understands that with God as the creator and owner, we are merely just stewards or managers of the resources we possess.  That includes things like the forests and the seas and the soil beneath our feet.  It also includes our voices and hands, our minds and hearts.  We may use these things, but whatsoever you do, do all things to bring glory to God.

Just two weeks ago, in our churches and around the world, Christians

celebrated the most holy day of the year, the Queen of Feasts.

Easter, as you probably know, is the commemoration of the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  We believe that Jesus died on the cross, but that he literally and bodily came back to life again, arose and then ascended into heaven, where He sits at the right hand of the Father ruling and governing the universe.

The Christian story does not end there, of course.  We also believe Jesus will return and when He returns, He will judge the living and the dead.  If that happens a long time from now, and if you or I happen to be dead at the time of His return, He will raise you literally and bodily from the grave.  And all of us will be changed.

Now, I’m going to tie this in, you’ll see, to FINE ARTS WEEK and EARTH DAY, but first I need to make one other point.  And that point is that people today and people of all times have been concerned with death.  Understandably.  Death is really our number one problem.  Not the war in Iraq or the wobbly economy.  Those are big problems, but ultimately, the greatest problem we have is DEATH and the prospect of death.  Scientific study has shown that the death rate among living things is 100%.  All of us will encounter it.

The mythology of our popular culture tries to deal with the concept of death in weird and fanciful manners.  One of the most popular genres of entertainment for Americans your age is the horror genre.  And as I look at it, the horror genre is one of the few genres of entertainment that seriously wrestles with the hard question of what are we going to do about death.

My wife is an English professor and one of her favorite authors is Jane Austen.  You’ve probably heard of the classic, Pride and Prejudice. Well, now the big hit is this one: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance -Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!What do you think of that?

And here is another book I’ve been reading lately: Let the Right One In. It’s a best-selling Swedish vampire novel that was recently adapted into a critically acclaimed film.

In popular culture right now, especially for young adults, zombies and vampires are very in style.  Zombies are the living dead.  Vampires are the undead.  Think also of the Frankenstein story.  There you have science trying to overcome death with medicine and technology, to bring dead body parts back to life as a supreme man.  It always fails.  Our human attempts to conquer death will always fail.

God is the Creator.  His proper work is to create life and make it prosper and flourish.  It is not His proper work to kill or destroy.  Sin has caused that to happen in His otherwise good creation.  Like all the earth, we have been tainted with sin, polluted, if you will.

The Green movement teaches us to recycle.  Recycle your paper, your plastic, your metal good.  Recycling makes sense to me.  Then you can use a product once.  When it is all used up, you throw it away.  It gets recycled and then you can use it again.  And the circle goes on and on.

But God, as usual, has a better way.  Easter is not God’s ultimate recycling project.  A man lives, gets used up.  He dies, gets tossed away like garbage.  Then God recycles Him and He lives again and the circle goes on.  That is not the way it is with God.  When God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, it was not just a recycling.  It was a glorious transformation.  The life that comes after the resurrection will never wear out, it will never get used up.  Jesus will never need to be tossed away again.

The same thing that happened to Jesus, happens to you, for you.  Through your holy baptism, you have been united to Christ’s death and resurrection.  His resurrection power is now alive within you, which is just me saying that Jesus Christ is alive within you.  And though, yes, your current body and spirit will one day wear out, get used up and need to be planted into the ground.  But you, like Jesus, will rise with a glorious life that will never end.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

The human brain is a marvelous creation.  Very complex.  The most advanced scientists still have only one scintilla of an understanding of its workings.

One feature that has been long observed, and repeatedly supported, is that the two halves or lobes of the brain have different general functions.  The left side governs speech, logic, linear thinking.  It is analytic.  The right side of the brain is creative, empathetic and playful.  Clearly, every healthy person uses his whole brain.  But undeniable evidence exists that some people rely on one lobe more than the other and that people think about problems and scenarios differently depending on which lobe dominates, so to speak.

Daniel Pink’s book, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, offers an intriguing theory on how the uniquenesses of right-brain thinking will pave the path for our society’s future advancement.  Contemporary western civilization is founded upon the industrial revolution.  Recent decades have been characterized as the Information Age.  These trends are strongly left-brained.

The challenge arises because we are entering a period when many left-brain oriented tasks and jobs can be done by computers and/or less expensive labor overseas.  Daniel Pink posits that the future success of America depends on our ability to adapt and embrace the benefits that right-brain thinking offers, what he calls high concept or high touch.  Right-brain thinking will never replace left-brain thinking.  He is only making the point that the strengths of logical linear thinking are no longer sufficient to sustain us as an economy or a culture.

The first meeting of the new Deffner Society will occur shortly after Easter break.  Right now, I’m thinking Thursday, April 23rd.  What time would you prefer?  I’m inclined to do it over the lunch hour, but if enough people would rather it be late afternoon or evening, I will take that into consideration.

I will present a brief lecture and lead discussion on the highly popular graphic novel, Watchmen, which was ranked by Time magazine as one of the 100 greatest American novels. The book has been recently turned into a blockbuster film.

Why This Is Significant
Watchmen takes place in an alternate American past. It’s 1985. The U.S. had a definitive victory in Vietnam. And Nixon is still in the White House. The Cold War has escalated to near boiling point. Everyone is on edge fearing a global nuclear holocaust. In this alternate America, there are masked superheroes, vigilantes for the most part. The costumed squads of crime fighters had been popular in the first half of the 20th century. But significantly, by 1985, a jaded populace had rejected them, mostly because it dawned on them that the heroes were nothing special but merely anti-social misfits with a strong fetish for justice.

Though by the beginning of the book, most of the superheroes are retired relics offering a disappointing nostalgic reminder of a more innocent time, there are two of the former crime-busters who do begin to achieve true greatness and expand their physical strength, mental powers, etc. One believes he is advancing due to physical, mental and spiritual exercises (i.e. yoga, etc.). He is the ultimate self-help guru. The other character becomes more than human after a bizarre laboratory accident.

We shall discuss several important philosophical themes as they are embedded in this popular narrative art form, The Watchmen. This will include the Nietzchean concept of the Ubermensch, the idea that man can and will transcend himself. Central also is the rejection of a need for God or any outside source of rescue (the superheroes) and that human beings who pursue self actualization will save themselves and dominate the others.

The novel’s great ethical question revolves around the value of human life. If a man can become an all-powerful god, won’t he lose all compassion for the weak? Won’t he look upon us with as much empathy as we look at termites?

I think it is interesting that the idea of a highly developed man, a super-man, was a prominent subject for many pulp science fiction books of the 1930s. Perhaps this helps, in a small way, to understand the cultural landscape behind the rise of National Socialism in Germany, Nietzsche’s “Will to Power.”

The English word “Easter” is the name for the Christian holiday upon which we celebrate the bodily resurrection of Jesus, the Christ, from the dead.  Critics of Christianity sometimes assert, at this time of year, that Easter is just a pagan holiday adopted by the earlier Christians. Thanks to Jeffrey Overstreet for pointing us to this fine article addressing that claim conclusively.