Twilight’s popularity is not simply teenage girl fascination and Edward Cullen’s perpetual Blue Steel expression (mom said if you made that face long enough it would stick that way, bro). The nature of the vampire has often been used as one of culture’s most potent metaphors for the sin nature, but Stephanie Meyer has added a vampire resistant to his temptations. With the point of view of protagonist Bella, the vampire is shifted – semi-successfully – from commentary on sin nature to commentary on supernatural savior.

Journey with us over centuries of vampire lore, through the popular characters from Dracula to Dark Shadows, Blade to Buffy, and finally to the polarizing film Twilight in this film and theology audio presentation. (NOTE: the last segment contains spoilers regarding the film).

Some people view movies as “mindless” entertainment when the reality is, more often than not, screenwriters and directors are expressing themes and worldviews that are powerful or curious to them. Film and Theology exists to point to these themes, as well as what compels us to tell stories. Entertainment is not mindless, it is engaging our mind; the real question is are we mindful of it – are we engaging it, or is it engaging us?

Listen to the message here by clicking the image above, or download it by right-clicking HERE. Choose from other options by visiting the Mars Hill Media Library.

Many Christians never get to god-honoring mission, because worship is exchanged for routines and rituals, and community is “serve me” minded instead of servant-minded. Others fear mission because of miscommunication, thinking this is relegated to the handing out of Christian tracts and taking time to pose propositional statements. Our great commission becomes something we clock in and out for instead of our lifestyle.

In the Old Testament, Daniel was “caught” praying. Although mission does require intentionality – as culture (even “Christian culture”) will lure us into a false sense of self-centered living – the gospel should compel us to live missional lives where we simply reflect Jesus in all we do and are “caught” being like Jesus. Questions about why we live counter-culturally… why we love, eat, breathe, and worship the way that we do… should come from those who watch us, because they don’t see “us”… they see the image of God.

Jesus was a sent and sending Savior; in reflection, are we Christ FOLLOWERS… or merely Christ spectators? Are you living provocatively? Does your life evoke questions from those that don’t know Jesus? Is a good part of your time in Christian community spent praying, planning and participating together in thoughtful relationships with those that don’t yet recognize Him as Lord? Is part of your accountability sharing specifically who you’re praying for, cultivating relationship with, and actively conversing with about Christ?

This final, commissioned component of our identity is not an option for the Christian but an essential aspect of the image-bearing we were created and called for. Paul refers to Christians as a “letter from Christ”. Will we selfishly content ourselves with receiving Jesus’ love, or BE His love letter to those our Father God is calling into His story?

Right click HERE to download or stream the sermon below.

Image-bearing is not done individually. God is Triune – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – and the people He made in his image and likeness were not created to image individually. We were created to image facets of God’s story and glory, joined together in such a beautiful formation that we shine light brighter than the facets of a diamond. God is multi-faceted, and so are we to be in God-glorifying community.

This is not community that simply hangs out, eats meals, laughs together and pats each other on the back because they worship the same God. Jesus washed his disciples’ filthy feet, yet many Christians don’t even lift a finger for those outside their own household, beyond offering therapeutic advice during the obligatory hour of “bible study time” and promising you’ll “pray for ‘em”. Many Christians congratulate themselves for the half-hour of service they provide every other week… as if they’re doing their church, and God, some kind of big favor.

At our campus, your pastors see many Christian husbands and dads thinking like individuals, satisfying their role as image-bearer by serving their wife and children, instead of thinking like the leader of an image-bearing household and seeking how to lead their families into participating in the story of God.

Christian community sees a corporate worship service as a time to grow through worshipful service. Christian community comes together during the week to really pursue deep relationship… not for the end goal of deep relationship, but partnership in the gospel for the purpose of doing mission together. Before we look at mission next week, we have to repent of our enculturated idolatry that keeps us from true community that can image God to this city.

Right click HERE to download or stream the sermon below.

Worship is not defined by the music we sing, or caged by the service we attend on Sunday. Worship is something we are doing constantly, which brings into question the object (or objects) of that worship every second of every minute of every day. If we worship Jesus for 2 hours on Sunday, what do we do with the other 166?

Jesus called us to worship in spirit and truth. As we were both created and called to be image-bearers of God, we cannot mistake our focus to be on ourselves, or our community, trying hard to be like Jesus. That is a person or community devoted to perfectionism instead of relationship. As image-bearers, our goal is not self-perfection or inward reclamation but relational, gospel transformation. God has created and called us to worship Him, and this is not simply mimicry but something we do relationally, conversationally, with the sum of our lives.

The center of our story is not understanding Jesus and being like Him, though a true relationship with him will both spur and produce this lifestyle and fruit. Worship is discovering and declaring the magnificence of God, not just by our image-bearing and not just in sacramental acts, but the way we breathe every breath, take in every sight, hear every sound, and move as image-bearers through every day. Although God has established and invited us to join together corporately, remember Christ in communion, and commissioned us to make disciples, our lives are to be living sacrifices that glorify God in all things.

Right click HERE to download or stream the sermon below.

As God incarnate – the perfect, sinless, Son of God – Jesus imaged our Father God perfectly. He pointed to our genesis as image-bearers, our role since the dawn of creation, and how we have distorted that image, perverted it, and stained it with self-serving sin. The importance of images, and our responsibility as God’s image-bearers, appears throughout scripture from Genesis to Revelation.

How easily we lose our identity, hide our identity, selfishly seek to redefine it and put ourselves at the center of the story. How easily do we despair over life because we have sourced our identity in what we do, what we’re hoping to do, what’s been done to us, who we know, or how much we know.

In this message we will look at God’s story, our place in it, and how the scriptures reveal God’s heart and commands regarding imaging. We’ll also look at Jesus, and one disciple who found His identity in Jesus, so that each of us can see a vivid, story-formed connection of how Jesus defines us, refines us, unites us, and brings us into relationship with God.

Right click HERE to download or stream the sermon below.

The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards in 2009 and won eight, the most for any film of 2008, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. The question remains: why did this film steal the hearts of filmgoers (as well as stealing the Best Picture win from The Dark Knight)? We explored the depth of this film’s narrative themes and why it tugged on so many heartstrings at a recent Film and Theology Event.

Some people view movies as “mindless” entertainment when the reality is, more often than not, screenwriters and directors are expressing themes and worldviews that are powerful or curious to them. Film and Theology exists to point to these themes, as well as what compels us to tell stories. Entertainment is not mindless, it is engaging our mind; the real question is are we mindful of it – are we engaging it, or is it engaging us?

Listen to the message here by clicking the image above, or download it by right-clicking HERE. Choose from other options by visiting the Mars Hill Media Library.

The film begins at the end… then proceeds to explore the life of a man in a series of vignettes, through the eyes of those who knew him… while this may not sound like a groundbreaking idea today, “Citizen Kane” was the first film to use non-linear storytelling like this. With its revolutionary writing and innovative use of lighting, contrast, and camera angles, many still consider it to be the best film every made, the measuring rod by which all other films are sized up and critiqued.

I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. – Ecclesiastes 2:18-21

As this fictional story of “Charles Foster Kane”—a thinly-veiled biography of media mogul William Randolph Hearst—opens with the man’s last word: “Rosebud”, the man shuffles off this mortal coil at his luxurious, palatial home, a veritable kingdom of priceless treasures and a testament to greed and capitalism; the man had built an empire, and yet dies alone and unhappy. A reporter attempts to discover the significance of Kane’s last, tragic whisper. This leads him to confidential writings, old friends, and ex-wives, as he tries to get the scoop on who—or what—the mysterious “Rosebud” might be.

Listen to the message here by clicking the image above, or download it by right-clicking HERE. Choose from other options by visiting the Mars Hill Media Library.

For a written review of Citizen Kane, and other reviews, you can also visit http://cinemagogue.com

John Adams said of Independence Day: “I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.” While there is nothing wrong with fireworks displays, barbecues and parties on this memorable day, I can’t help but think that many Americans miss something important.

Most of the talk I hear about “freedom” has become blurred, abstract; instead of a historical marker about deliverance from an oppressive authority and deliverance to better governance, it has become a personal anthem for a rejection of all authority. This is not the heart of a Christian, encapsulated in 1 Peter 2:16: “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.”

It’s important to put a cultural mindset like this in perspective, remembering that we are contingent beings, wholly reliant on God, absolutely dependent on our Creator and Savior for everything from our existence to our salvation. It’s important to understand rightly our state of birth, and our rights, properly contrast with the GIFT of freedom that we have in Christ. We have a King. His name is Jesus, and he has freed us from sin. We are His subjects, and thus subject to our King. Is this how we live?

Considering where we’re headed as a congregation in Northeast Seattle, Peter’s words are appropriate… but it seems God’s sovereignty has ensured its relevance to all generations, from Peter’s to ours.

Listen to the message here by clicking the image above, or download it by right-clicking HERE. Choose from other options by visiting the Mars Hill Media Library.

Peter wrote two important letters that fill out our Bible with Spirit-filled wisdom, encouragement, admonishment and more. It’s only by the crazy grace of God, which defies human “reason”, that this impulsive, ignorant, well-intentioned yet often ill-informed, passionate fisherman (who swang between cowardice and violence) was transformed into the pivotal figure in the formation of Jesus’ church.

When we preached this sermon, we had just finished the epistle of 1 Peter as a congregation. Looking at 3 sermons he gave in the Acts of the Apostles, we see how Luke’s recording of Peter’s verbal proclamations mirror themes he would write later in life writing letters to the church. We see assurance, affirmation, baptism and boldness resulting from this man’s radically righted view of God, Christ, and salvation.

Considering where we’re headed as a congregation in Northeast Seattle, Peter’s words are appropriate… but it seems God’s sovereignty has ensured its relevance to all generations, from Peter’s to ours.

Listen to the message here by clicking the image above, or download it by right-clicking HERE. Choose from other options by visiting the Mars Hill Media Library. ]]> http://lakecity.marshillchurch.org/2009/06/12/3-acts-of-peter/feed/ 1 http://lakecity.marshillchurch.org/2009/05/28/the-incredible-hulk-vs-liam-neeson/ http://lakecity.marshillchurch.org/2009/05/28/the-incredible-hulk-vs-liam-neeson/#comments Thu, 28 May 2009 18:59:30 +0000 Pastor James Harleman http://lakecity.marshillchurch.org/?p=1366

“I will look for you, I will find you, and I WILL KILL YOU.” - Liam Neeson, Taken

“HULK SMAAAAASH!” – The Hulk, The Incredible Hulk

Okay, so maybe we won’t see the tall Irish Actor sparring with the green goliath anytime soon, but the two have something in common: they both get the same treatment from our Film and Theology team.

Last month, The Incredible Hulk was the subject of narrative scrutiny as we gathered, watched the film, and delved into the psyche and societal impact of this gamma-powered pop culture icon. Audio from the night’s teaching is available, just click “play audio” on the image below, or download it by right-clicking HERE. Choose from other options by visiting the Mars Hill Media Library.

Next month, we’ll dive into the frenetic action thriller featuring a father desperately and relentlesslypursuing his daughter’s abductors before its too late. If you’re a fan of Liam Neeson, the style of the Bourne movies, or just like to see people running amuck in Paris, you’re welcome to join us June 19.

Cinema is a modern day pulpit; people flock to their local multiplex and find themselves moved by a worldview expressed in narrative, influenced by directors and screenwriters and who affect how we feel, think, and act. Monthly film viewings are followed by an expository exploration of narrative themes and spiritual parallels. For more on cinema and spirituality, visit www.cinemagogue.com