The Dark Knight Rises

            I must start off by sending out my deepest and heartfelt condolences to all the victims and families affected by the terrible shooting in Colorado. This issue should raise awareness and questions on several levels: issues of gun control in this country, safety and the lack of security in movie theaters, and most importantly, that Christ is truly coming soon! What it should absolutely not do, however, is detract from the brilliant film The Dark Knight Rises. First of all, the shooter clearly came to the theater with a plan that he had formulated before seeing the film. Second, reports are saying that he claimed that he was the Joker, the villain of the previous Nolan film. I am already seeing media outlets and even preachers starting to blame this shooting on the Batman mythos in general and The Dark Knight Rises in specific. I think this is unfair to the film and to Batman fans that know what the character and the storylines truly stand for.

            That being said, I would like to give my comments on the film (no spoilers) and on what makes Batman so special and unique in comic book mythology. I thought this was a truly brilliant film. I would dare say it was one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. Given, I may be a little biased because, as any of my closest friends know, I am a huge Batman fan. It was a phenomenal conclusion to an amazing vision by Christopher Nolan. The movie runs fluidly and keeps the audience so engaged that they don’t realize they have been sitting for almost three hours. The action was excellent, the storyline was superb and the emotion that runs through the entire film was very gripping. To avoid saying too much, I will simply say that Nolan delivers big time on The Dark Knight Rises. He had a vision for the trilogy and followed through.

             Nolan’s vision was simple: make Batman believable. He created a solid story centered on the grittier, more down-to-earth interpretations provided by Frank Miller’s graphic novels Batman:Year One and The Dark Knight Returns. In my opinion, Batman is the realest and most believable character in all of comics. Batman’s story and power comes from one simple question: why? Why does Bruce Wayne do this? Superman is a demi-god from an alien planet trying to fit in with humans while simultaneously saving them from their own destruction. Spiderman was bitten by a radioactive spider and was reminded by his Uncle Ben that “with great power comes great responsibility”. Most superheroes, by definition, have some sort of superpower that drives them to do what they do. But Batman has no superpowers. No radioactive spiders, no mutation, no powers imbued by Earth’s yellow sun. So why does he do it? What drives him? One reason and one reason only: he can’t let go. He experienced a terrible tragedy as a child and it forever defines him. It was said that when his parents died Bruce Wayne ceased to exist and Batman became his true identity. The psychological depth of the character, his supporting casts, and even his canon of villains is unparalleled by any other comic book character or storyline. The Dark Knight Rises brings all of this out in epic fashion, cementing Batman as one of the most iconic characters of a generation.

To Be Fed?

            Well here it is folks! My first blog post! Let me start things off with a brief explanation of what this blog is intended to be. Essentially it is precisely what the blog name indicates. It will be a compilation of my thoughts on various issues: politics, religion and theology, sports, pop culture, entertainment, etc. For my first blog post I would like to focus on an issue of religion and spirituality.

            Today I attended an after-church, bring your own lunch board meeting at the church where I currently serve as Youth and Young Adult Pastor. The meeting was supposed to be a coming together to discuss issues related to the previous quarter’s Sabbath school lesson on witnessing and evangelism. There was one item on the agenda: how can we as a church facilitate church growth and evangelism? However, as can be expected, the discussion went terribly awry.

            People began to complain about their pet issues of what was going wrong in the church and why it isn’t growing. Blame fell on other churches, the youth department, dry worship services, forgetting the fundamentals, lack of commitment, and of course the pastors. I heard explanations of how young adults aren’t coming to church because they aren’t being “fed” which probably has some truth in it. However, I would like to raise one question tonight: Is that what we’re really here for? To be fed? Is that why we come to church? Is that why we drag people out of their beds at 8 o’clock on Sabbath morning, guilt them into coming to Sabbath School, and have them sit for 2 hours in a service? To be fed? I think this a gross distortion of what biblical worship is supposed to be.

            There are several requirements of biblical worship and none of them have to do with “style” or musical preference. For tonight's purposes I will mention only one of them. Biblical worship is about God and God alone. Nowhere in Scripture will one find anything saying that worship was designed to glorify, uplift, magnify, or edify humans. Throughout biblical history, the purpose of worship was to glorify, uplift, magnify and edify God.

            We see the earliest instances of worship with Cain and Abel in Genesis 4:3-5. Cain brings an offering to God which God does not accept, but He accepts Abel’s. The Bible does not specifically tell us why God rejected Cain’s offering and accepted Abel’s but it does give us a few clues. First, it says that “Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground” and Abel brought an offering “of the firstborn of his flock”. The text suggests that Cain just brought any fruit while Abel specifically brought the firstborn of his flock. This suggests that Abel’s offering was actually a “sacrifice” in the truest sense of the word. Abel brought the firstborn, the best of the flock. Cain just brought whatever he wanted and thought God would accept it. The point is that Abel’s worship was a sacrifice, and Cain’s worship self-motivated. Cain wanted to keep the first and best for himself.

          In the sanctuary service established by God in the tabernacle worship was all about God's intervention into human life and how He would ultimately reconnect us to Himself. David revolutionized Israel's worship life by providing music, poetry, and liturgy. The New Testament featured small, intimate, house-worships due to the underground beginnings of the church and the climate of persecution. So biblical worship is diverse, complex and multi-faceted. But it has one constant: It is always centered on God.

          How does this apply to our current understanding of worship? It tells us that worship is about God, who He is, and what He has done for us. Worship should never be motivated by self-interest. Paul tells us in Romans 12:1 that our “reasonable service of worship” is to present our bodies as “living sacrifices”. In essence, we come to church not primarily to get, but to give. We give ourselves to God! We come to worship and praise Him for who He is and what He has done. Any blessing we receive out of it is a by-product, not the end-goal. It is the same as returning tithe and offering. We return tithe and offering 1) because it belongs to God, 2) because we trust God to take care of us. We should not return it only because God has promised to bless us if we do. The blessing is a by-product, but not the reason. Until we get out of this mindset that worship is about us we will continue to fight and go round and round about worship styles, forms, traditional verses contemporary, drums verses no drums, and “black” worship verses “white” worship. Our focus is completely in the wrong place. Worship is about God not us. If we offer Him whatever we have with a sincere and open heart I believe that He will accept our worship and we will indeed be “fed”.

If there was any goodness or merit found here, that goodness and merit is from the Creator. If there were any flaws or errors, those were mine. Blessings