Living Open Source» Illustrations

St Peter and meat balls?!!

Tim — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:57:46 +0000

They may think that I have completely lost the plot this Sunday if I show a clip from Cloudy with a chance of meat balls in church. Hamburgers dropping from the sky or a net bursting, haul of fish – what’s the difference?

Luke’s account of the calling the disciples in this week’s gospel reading, focusses on Peter, someone who Luke will follow throughout his two epic narratives of the fishermen from Galilee. Luke tends to minimize Peter’s failings, at least when compared to the other gospels. In Luke’s gospel Peter doesn’t try to deflect Jesus from his path of suffering for example. This encounter in Luke 5:1-11 is the start of the journey for Peter.

First, what difference does a lab coat make? In Cloudy with a chance of meat balls, Flint’s mother gives him a lab coat that makes him believe he can invent like the pros. The trailer makes this point pretty well. For Peter, the barrier to his full participation in the kingdom is his sense of unworthiness (“Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”). But Jesus believes in him.

Then after a long run of failed inventions, Flint finally gets it right as his attempt to cure world hunger works (though rather too well if you watch the whole film)! Peter’s haul of fish shows the kind of thing that might happen later in his story, if he is willing to overcome his fears and follow Christ.

There are a few clips from Cloudy with a chance of meatballs on WingClips or it is now out on DVD.

What would you say to Job?

Tim — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:43:13 +0000

Trying to think through how to present the story of Job in the context of an all-age service, I came across the Brick Testament – an amazing collection of illustrations of Bible stories done with Lego bricks!

As the lectionary picks up readings in Job over the next few weeks, it is an opportunity to reflect on the question of why bad things happen to good people, and whether our own theology is at all helpful when responding to others in times of tragedy.

If you are after something much deeper, and it will take more than Lego to deal with the huge questions that this book poses, Carol Newson’s The Book of Job: A Contest of Moral Imaginations is well worth looking at. As is July 1999’s edition of Interpretation (Vol 53) which has a series of articles exploring the book of Job.

Psalm 23

Tim — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:56:50 +0000

This was a bit of an experiment with some motion type after viewing some of the cool stuff on the vimeo Nice Type channel.

Psalm 23 on Vimeo.

You can watch it in HD on vimeo.

The bible text comes from the public domain translation, The World English Bible (WEB).

What did Amos see?

Tim — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:24:17 +0000

This week’s Old Testament lectionary reading in Amos 7 includes the wonderful plumbline illustration. I felt it could be brought up to date a little.

How about something like: “What do you see Amos?”, “I see an ipod touch running the latest level app!”

But just when I thought I’d managed to get my latest toy into a sermon, I discover that no serious scholar thinks it actually says that. The word translated in verse 7 is אֲנָךְ (’anakh) and occurs only in this passage. In the middle ages, some bright spark thought it meant “lead” so obviously Amos was looking at a plumbline. The plumbline makes for a great illustration; tin on the other hand doesn’t seem to make much sense, even if most scholars seem to go it. That is, all except Marvin Sweeny, who writes in the wonderful Berit Olam series of commentaries.

Sweeny suggests the word might actually mean plaster and his argument makes a lot of sense, given that all the images Amos is relaying to us are from his work in agriculture. He sees locusts, a common problem in that time and particularly critical at the time of year in which this is set. He sees fire – fires happen all the time in that climate and pose a continual threat to livelihoods. Then Plaster – well after the long dry summers, plaster would be used to fill in the cracks appearing in walls, before the rains came. You’ll have to read Sweeny for the full argument, but he is about the only scholar to have an alternative to plumbline that makes some kind of sense. The significance of the word however is the pun that the word suggests. The word is similar to that for lament and mourning and so Yahweh is to put lament and mourning amongst the people. Whether you say the word means tin or plaster, the pun in Hebrew is still there!

How annoying! The ipod illustration would have gone down rather well in church. Instead, I need to find an ipod app that does the plastering.

livingos on flickr
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Now What? Its Easter morning…

Tim — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 09:50:29 +0000

It is interesting that later manuscript copyists felt it necessary to take Mark’s version of Easter morning beyond verse 8. Perhaps we share their concerns for the need for nice neat, happy endings. But mark’s gospel invites us to continue the story in fear and amazement – a pretty potent combination of emotions. Mark invites us to finish the gospel, having told how it has begun (Mark 1:1). He has been keen to point out it involves following the way of the cross.

Trembling and bewildered the women went out and fled the tomb. (Mark 16:1-8)

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Jonah on YouTube

Tim — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:46:46 +0000

I‘m not preaching the lectionary this week, as I’m preaching away from home. I thought I’d use the story of Jonah for which there seem to be endless animated versions of the story, like this one.

Christ Community Church in Omaha, NE have produced a set of great animations of the story which can be found on good old YouTube. Here is the first in the series.

The Problem in the Text

Tim — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 08:40:48 +0000

In preaching class at college, we were told to look for the problem in the text. I was never very good at it but I think I found one this week. Jesus bunks off to pray, then leaves town, while a queue of the lame and looney stands hoping he comes back!

Mark 1:29-39

Sorry it is a bit late for most people preaching this week.

the Perils of Biblical literalism:– Fishing

Tim — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:50:02 +0000

What did Jesus really mean when he invited his first followers to leave their nets and start fishing for people instead? This week’s lectionary gospel reading is Mark 1:14-20.

Fishing for people

Mark’s first public act by Jesus is to call the disciples, who respond immediately and continue throughout the gospel to play a key part in the work of the kingdom that is here or near (or whatever your preference for vs 14 is). Far too often Christians have missed the point about what Jesus meant by fishing for people, trying to hook converts rather than make disciples.

Just a bit of light relief from the new commentary on Mark I have been reading!

A witness to the light

Tim — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:12:47 +0000

Last week I read many commentaries trying to explain away why anybody should eat locusts. Why these clever scholars thought it was at all interesting I don’t know. We have I’m a Celebrity get me out here so locusts really aren’t all that bad. This week’s lectionary reading (John 1:6-8) says something much more important about the man named John who was sent by God.

John, says John (a different one), “came to testify to the light”. It is amazing how many different versions of Jesus, the light, there are amongst Christians. This is something that Marcus Borg picks up on in his Jesus: uncovering the Life, teachings and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary. Funny how the books you casually pick up to read have an immediate impact on your thoughts for Sunday. He says:

How Christians tell the story of Jesus deeply affects how we see God and the Christian life

What kind of Jesus do our lives give testimony to?

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Investing – the Squirrel way?

Tim — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:26:59 +0000

I came across this little stash of acorns while out walking. Is this the best thing to do with your prize acorns in a recession?

Jesus seems to be suggesting, in The Parable of the Talents, that this is how many of us invest the abundance of what God sends our way. Out of fear we like to keep God out of harms way. Take no risks. Keep things as they are. To understand this parable you probably have to recognise that burying your loot in Jesus’s day was a perfectly sensible thing to do; like putting it in the Nationwide Building Society.

Many people are afraid of losing or endangering God and so seek to protect God from adventures, to resist attempts at radical inclusion that might, they fear, compromise God’s purity and holiness. Protecting God is a variant of not trusting God.
William Loader

Investing - the Squirrel way

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