It is May 4th, friends! As in “May the Fourth Be With You!” For those of you who haven’t quite caught on, the fourth day in May is Star Wars Day. For many fans with paid-time off to spare, this is a day watch all six movies in production, chronological, or Machete order. I will also be graduating from seminary this May. Very cool. Thus, it seems fitting that I share how the Force brought me to seminary. In 1997,…
Barenaked Ladies just get me. And I don’t say that lightly. I pride myself on being something of a journeyman wordsmith, and in that regard I find it grating when someone describes something he or she enjoys with nothing more than “They just get me.” It sounds non-descript, unthoughtful, and inarticulate. Yet when an individual employs the phrase “they just get me,” we grasp that person’s meaning. Whatever the subject, it is evident that this person finds some transcendent resonance…
I think Judas Iscariot gets a bad wrap. His name far surpasses “Benedict Arnold!” as a designation for traitor. He appears in the center of Hell in Dante’s Inferno along side Brutus and Cassius (betrayers of Julius Caesar!). He is the penultimate backstabber. And yet I have heard very few sermons about Judas. For someone who is near solely responsible for the short series of events that lead to Jesus’ state-sanctioned execution, he gets very little attention. Today is Maundy…
What are you gonna give up for Lent, Napoleon? Whatever I feel like! GOOSSHH!” Many of us have a movie dear to us that we feel best encapsulates or embodies our high school experience. For some, it is The Breakfast Club. For others, it’s Superbad. And still yet for others, some logic or affinity leads them to Degrassi. Mine is Napoleon Dynamite. Most people seem to either love or hate Napoleon Dynamite. Shortly after its release in 2004, a church…
I am a big fan of the work of Charles Dickens. Few writers of his era, or ours for that matter, wrote with such versatility. He could write satire, drama, and murder mysteries! He consistently wrote from the perspective of outcasts of society and about their interactions with the wealthy and elite. And he consistently and vividly described a Victorian England covered in grit, grease, and soot. He portrayed an England largely ignored by society’s upper crust. While such a…
The death of a cherished friend or family member is truly an experience that is beyond description. Have you ever attempted to articulate the grief you feel at such a loss to someone who has never experienced it? All words fall short. It seems fitting, then, that God created in humanity a desire and drive for creative expression. Art of all sorts is what offers us a medium to express the inexpressible. If we want to begin to grasp the…
Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the earth: Grant that these ashes may be to us a sign of our mortality and penitence, that we may remember that it is only by your gracious gift that we are given everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen. Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Last night, my wife and I had these words spoken over us as we let a person…
I have never been in a fight, not really. There were some close calls, to be sure. In elementary school, I was bullied for my rotundness. I passively endured, knowing that physically fighting would only result in discipline at school and at home. But at the start of my sophomore year of high school, and after having been the subject of an older student’s heckling, vandalism and emotional abuse my freshman year, I did address the situation. I lifted him…
Happy New Year! I have high hopes for what is in store for ThePilgrimGeek in 2018. 2017 ended on a high note with the release of Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi, providing much grist for the nerd mill. (I’ve yet to discuss Star Wars here, but I may soon open that treasure trove). Black Panther and the next installment of Avengers are on their way. And there’s always books to read, tv shows to check out, and last year’s films…
“Manners Maketh Man.” The proverb first appears in William Horman’s Vulgaria in 1519, but has found its contemporary articulation in Matthew Vaughn’s 2014 pulp-action spy romp: Kingsman: The Secret Service. And this fall’s sequel, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, takes manners beyond pressed pin-striped suites and polite conversational etiquette. Manners means no more ‘Bond Girls.’ For decades, James Bond has been an archetype of refined, sophisticated masculinity. The well-dressed, articulate, and charismatic MI6 agent has dined with the highest of society,…