The Sermon on the Mount 16

Posted on June 9, 2010 by Jason

21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. — Matthew 5.21-26

I used to hear this word as a warning against calling someone a “fool”. I remember watching the A-Team growing up and I’d mimic Mr. T, who would go around saying stuff like, “I pity the fool who messes with me.” It always bothered my mother and when she told me why, I stopped saying it. Partially out of respect for her; mostly out of fear of hell. Clearly there’s a message here about the words we say to one another.

But I think this passage speaks a much deeper word. The gospel life that Jesus announces and inaugurates is brimming with reconciliation. The kingdom of God is properly understood as the sphere where reconciliation occurs most comprehensively. The mission of Jesus is to bring reconciliation (Romans 5.11; 2 Cor 5.19; Col 1.22). Disciples of Christ participate in this same mission (2 Cor 5.19-20). Our very lives bear witness to gospel truth: we vanquish estrangement in our relationships with the same voracity God demonstrates in His great reconciliation project — the Incarnation of Christ. Reconciliation must be more than what we “do”; it defines our very existence. We, the reconciled, agents of God’s grand mission.

And so Jesus calls us to first practice that which we later preach: Be reconciled! For this obedience is far greater than sacrifice.

Posted in 2 Corinthians 5, Devotional, Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, Missiology, Scripture, Sermon on the Mount | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Strasburg Mania

Posted on June 9, 2010 by Jason

Last night something strange happened. Baseball in the nation’s capitol was relevant.

Well, sort of.

Stephen Strasburg, the much-ballyhooed precocious fireballer the Nationals drafted with the first overall pick in the 2009 amateur draft, made his major league debut last night. Facing the Pittsburgh Pirates – with what amounts to a Quad-A lineup – Strasburg demonstrated the velocity and command befitting the next big thing, walking nary a batter while striking out 14 in an impressive win.

According to ESPN, Strasburg’s arrival was also heralded by luminous phenomenon and magi from the east.

Sure, the kid had an impressive debut. And yes, the Nats desperately needed a positive night after languishing at the bottom of the NL East since their inception. (As a reminder, here’s an all-time lowlight.)

But a healthy dose of perspective is also in order. To begin with, Strasburg alone won’t be the savior of baseball in D.C. Let’s not forget that the team has an elite third baseman in Ryan Zimmerman. (It’s a travesty that Placido Polanco is besting Zimmerman at present for the starting nod on the NL All-Star Team. Come on, people!) And there are also a bevy of young players in the Nationals organization that are either on their way (Bryce Harper), recovering from injury (Jordan Zimmerman), or already helping out at the big league level (Drew Storen). And by kicking the tires on available veterans like Roy Oswalt and signing low-risk injury recovery types like Chen Ming-Wang, the Washington front office has shown a willingness to acquire more talent through a variety of different routes.

So is Strasburg the Messiah of Nationals baseball? Time will tell. But to coronate him as such undermines the hard work of a front office that has this team pointed in the right direction for the first time in the club’s history.

The Nationals’ salvation is a much more collective process.

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Where You Been?

Posted on June 7, 2010 by Jason

So, things have been kinda quiet around the ol’ blog lately.

Even my seemingly unending stream of LOST-related posts has been disrupted.

“Where you been?”, you might be asking.

Busy, it turns out.

A wedding, a retreat, a major surgical procedure by a family member, transporting children here and yon…it all has left little time (or energy) for blogging these past few days. But I’m hoping to get back into my semi-regular habit of writing. Here’s what’s on tap in the days to come:

  • A robust MLB report, complete with my thoughts on Armando Gallaraga’s near-perfect game, the Tampa Bay Rays as the new “model” small market franchise, and why Stephen Strasburg ISN’T the Messiah.
  • A recap of some of my favorite albums of 2010 (so far), including another tireless plug extolling the glory of eMusic.
  • The next installment in my Sermon on the Mount series.
  • An invitation to a free marriage enrichment seminar for those of you who live in the Huntsville area. I’ll have more to say (write?) about that later, but I wanted to go ahead and put it on your radar. Dates are June 27-30 at Mayfair.
  • An essay on why a penny is never JUST a penny. Stay tuned for more.

Anyway, just wanted you to know I’m alive and that the writing juices are still flowing. See you later in the week.

Posted in Blogging, General | 4 Comments

LOST: Putting It All Together, Vol. 1

Posted on June 1, 2010 by Jason

What is the Sideways World?

The Sideways world exists as a communally-created realm of consciousness, an outpost for displaced souls awaiting eternal upload.

At least, that’s my guesswork definition of the Sideways world. It seems fairly open to interpretation.

At the start of Season 6, I was fairly critical of the Sideways world. And not without cause; it seemed — to be honest — a colossal waste of time. The producers made it seem that they couldn’t decide where to go at the end of Season 5. Did Jughead explode and create an entirely new timeline / future for our characters? Or did the “whatever happened, happened” maxim prove true and the only thing Jughead really did was blast our characters back to the Island-present, circa 2007? It seemed that with the Sideways story, Season 6 was going to try and answer both of these questions in the affirmative. And that would’ve been uber-weird, even for a show like LOST. Thus, I voiced my initial disappointment with the Sideways story.

Of course, now that the story is complete, it’s easy to see the Sideways world as the indispensable final chapter of the LOST story. The Sideways world reinforces the myriad connections that were made between these characters in the first few seasons. It honors those connections as more than mere coincidence; in fact, the show has always been interpreted this way. But the Sideways world ups the ante on the whole discussion. Sure, these castaways were connected in ways they never understood in their pre-Island lives; but the show’s final stanza demonstrated the powerful connections these same individuals shared in the post-Island eschaton.

Season 5’s Jughead plotline was about rebooting history. “All the misery we’ve been through…we’d just wipe it clean. Never happened.” Jack assumed this was his Island destiny, the reason for which he returned to the Isle of Smokey anyway. Turns out he was wrong. In the end, LOST isn’t about cosmic do-overs and wiping the slate clean. If the Sideways world was about anything, it was about remembering that we might move on. I’m back to what I believe to be one of the show’s more important pieces of dialogue, spoken by John Locke to Sawyer in Season 5: “I needed that pain to get where I am now.” The Sideways characters individually needed to recognize their former lives — and the pain and joys that were a part of those lives — before they could move on. Enlightenment, at least in the LOST universe, is about remembering the past, not obliterating it with a hydrogen bomb.

But Season 6 also introduced us to another LOST mantra: Nothing is irreversible. First spoken by Jack to John Locke upon their initial Sideways encounter, it birthed a context of hope for how we might interpret the Sideways world. We thought, “Maybe Jack will operate on John and ‘fix’ him. Maybe John’s advice will put Jack on a trajectory to find his resurrected father, Christian.” We hoped these things would come true because they never materialized in the Island world. On the Island, Jack and Locke became adversaries, a man of science and a man of faith pitted against one another in a ideological war over the nature of the Island. But this exchange offered hope that these two might finally see how they compliment one another, how they need one another, and in so doing fulfill some kind of shared destiny together.

But the finale posed the thought again, only this time Jack was on the receiving end. Asked by Kate why he accepted Jacob’s invitation to become the Island’s newest guardian, Jack responds by saying, “I took it because the Island is all I’ve got left. It’s the only thing in my life I haven’t managed to ruin.” Kate tells him, “You haven’t ruined anything. Nothing is irreversible.” As she looks at Jack, you realize that she’s talking about their relationship. In his pre-detonation convo with Sawyer in Season 5’s finale, Jack admits that his strained relationship with Kate is part of the reason he wants to detonate Jughead. When Sawyer encourages him to go and make things right with her, Jack says, “No, it’s too late for that now.” Jack has always carried the burdens of his failures with him; call it living into Christian’s rebuke that Jack just didn’t have “what it takes” to be a great man. Nowhere does Jack believe this more than in his relationship with Kate.

And that is where the Sideways world is the beautiful affirmation of Season 6’s theme. Nothing IS irreversible in the Sideways world. Sun and Jin’s watery separation? Reversed. Jack’s dead father? Alive and well. Sayid’s unrequited love for Shannon? Fully “quited” (although still creepy in my book). And on and on…

So I think it’s proper to understand the Sideways world as the Island’s complimentary space — a yin to the Island’s yang — helping to bring these characters’ destinies full circle. I would even argue that the Island’s “purpose” is incomplete and unknowable without the Sideways world.

Posted in Television | Tagged | 5 Comments

Things I Want to Remember, Vol. 9

Posted on June 1, 2010 by Jason

Last night, our Bible story was about God’s promise to Abraham that the Messiah would come from his descendants. The kids asked what “Messiah” meant; I told them it meant Jesus was sent from God, that He was God’s “anointed one” (which is what the word really means). Then they asked what “anointed” meant, so I explained the process of pouring oil over someone’s head to signify God’s choice.

Joshua said, “Oh…like at the end of a football game when the team wins and they take the Gatorade and dump it on the coach’s head!”

Anointed by Gatorade. I like it.

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LOST: What It All Means

Posted on May 27, 2010 by Jason

Well, it’s been four days and I’ve had time to come down somewhat from my instantly euphoric experience of viewing the LOST finale. As with most things, time gives us the perspective to cut through the hype and hyperbole to understand and appreciate a particular work of art with much greater clarity. It’s really the only fair way to unequivocally grade a finale as grand as LOST’s. We all feared that the show would falter by “going for it”, trying to do and say too much — tackling issues both cosmic and salvific. So after thinking about it for a couple of days, I have a much better perspective from which to offer this critique:

The LOST finale was absolutely perfect.

Did it resolve every mystery sufficiently? Clearly not, judging by the reaction of some fans. Sure, I would’ve loved a little more clarification on how the whole Jacob’s cabin thing worked. But the answer-philes never quite got LOST anyway. LOST is one of most prominent network programs to so fully embrace the postmodern comfortable approach to ambiguity. It isn’t so much about resolving every mystery; LOST is about learning just enough to accept the reality of mystery. That’s a message that rings true in my life.

After six years, I doubt many of us were hoping for an expository resolution of the show’s myriad mythological threads anyway. (The producers gave ample warning that we wouldn’t be getting a midi-chlorian discussion or a ten-minute monologue from “The Architect”.) Instead, we wanted to see how these characters’ stories would be resolved. Would Jack’s heroic arc finally reach completion? Would Sawyer revert back to his pre-Island roguish ways? Would John Locke rise out of the grave on Boone Hill to walk again? Would our characters find redemption, salvation, or something else in the Sideways world? These were the stories we wanted to see and feel and experience. And in that regard, the finale satisfied on a very deep level.

So what is the Island? The Garden of Eden? A communal salvation project? Storehouse of mystical hoo-ha? A little bit of each, I suppose. In light of the finale, it’s easy to see the Sideways world as the Island’s complimentary space; if the Island is understood as some sort of destiny-soaked testing ground, the Sideways world functions as Purgatory — a place where our castaways work out their own salvation with fear and trembling before they can move on to whatever afterlife awaits them. But this process must be communal. As we’ve seen, even the Island needs a complimentary space — a yin to it’s yang — to bring these characters destinies full circle. I would even argue that the Island’s “purpose” is incomplete and unknowable without the Sideways world. No Island is an island, I guess.

And this is where the show’s theme emerges: “Live together, die alone.” LOST remains fairly ambiguous about a great many things (those pesky Dharma food drops, for instance), but this much is clear: we need each other more than we realize. Sociologically speaking, we’re all guilty of the same thing our castaways were guilty of early: identifying the foreign as “Other”. The castaways demonization first of themselves and later of the Tailies and finally of the Others all speaks a relevant word to our pigeon-hole-happy, bifurcated culture. Fast forward to the closing scenes of the series, however, and Benjamin Linus (of all people) completes the final circuit in John Locke’s eschatological ascension by imploring his Island nemesis to get up out of his wheelchair. Locke’s expression shines as if Ben has told him something he’s known to be true all along but he’s never dared to believe. John stands, says goodbye to Ben, and climbs the stairway to heaven. Without Ben, would John have tried unsuccessfully to climb the stairs on his own? How fitting that Ben — the source of John’s Island pain — holds to key to John’s afterlife actualization. As Locke said in Season 5: “I needed that pain to get where I am now.”

In the end, LOST had much to say about the enterprise of faith; but it wasn’t so much about faith drawing us closer to God as it was about faith drawing us to one another. From the last paragraph of Doc Jensen’s awesome EW review:

With fear and trembling, Jack stepped out of the cloakroom and into the sanctuary where his soulmates were waiting for him. Was he fully enlightened by that point? I think no. I think a few more things needed to happen, and they all did. I think he needed to be greeted by John Locke. Greeted with that smile and that handshake and be told, ”I’m glad you decided to join us.” I think he needed to be touched by his friends. Hugged by Boone, the man he couldn’t save. Hugged by Sawyer, his enemy turned ally. Hugged by Desmond, his brother in Island salvation. Bear hugged by Hurley, who takes care of everyone. Then he needed to be led by Kate to his seat, and he needed one act of love from his father, that touch that said, ”I’m proud of you.” Christian opened the doors. Light flooded into the church. Jack smiled. It was real. It was all real. And in that moment, he was complete. Redeemed. Reconciled. Restored. He remembered his last moments on The Island. He remembered his sacrifice. He remembered he had lived a life, a hard life, a life full of mistakes and pain, but that in the end, the good in him won out, and that he died with heart in the right place. He was a hero. And he let go. The End.

Posted in Television | 3 Comments

LOST: Final Image

Posted on May 26, 2010 by Jason

I’m still working up my “what it all means” post (which will be up tomorrow, hopefully). But in the meantime, I thought you might find this interesting.

It seems that the final images we saw — images of plane wreckage during the show’s final credits — caused some to question the entire Island story as reality. Some have argued that these images were a clue that the entire Island story was, in fact, a Purgatory-like state of existence for our castaways. Of course, this was a popular Season 1 theory, one that the producers vehemently denied at the time. And, it turns out, they’re sticking to their story.

This EW article sets the record straight; ABC added the plane wreckage footage to simply soften the transition from the closing image of Jack’s eye closing to the local news broadcast. Executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse did NOT add these images; therefore, they should not factor in to fan interpretation of the show.

Glad we cleared that up.

Posted in Television | Tagged , | 3 Comments

LOST Season Six: The End

Posted on May 24, 2010 by Jason

I’ll just work up a “brief” recap of the episode tonight (and by “brief”, I mean 1500 words); I’ll probably create a more comprehensive “what it all means” post in another day or so. Actually, it’ll probably be a multi-part series! Too much to write about! Anyway, here goes my recap:

I loved the way the episode began; it was actually a companion piece to the episode’s concluding shot. We began with scenes of Jack, Ben, Locke, Sawyer, Kate in the two different realities (set beautifully to Giacchino’s score) while Christian’s “body” was being transported to the church. Outside the church, Desmond tells Kate, “No one can tell you why you’re here,” a line that brims with resonance in light of the conclusion.

Desmond is right; no one can tell you why you’re “here” when you’re in the Sideways. But it seems that the show goes out of its way in the finale to say that you can’t really be “here” all by yourself. It’s only in the context of community that we find our truest, most complete selves. “Live together, die alone.” Right? More to say about that in my “what it all means” post later in the week.

Meanwhile, the Island narrative begins with Jack standing mid-stream in the “river of life”. Its fitting, since this episode finally depicts our protagonist as a destiny-soaked hero for a change. Jack has really taken a beating by some fans over the years, but I’ve always been partial to the doc. I thought Fox played the hero well in this episode, especially in his confrontations with Locke. His “I’m going to kill you” speech will go down as one of my favorite moments in LOST history.

The Sideways scene between Jin, Sun, and Juliet was the first real tearjerker of the night. We all cried foul a few weeks ago when our Korean couple died aboard the sub, especially given that Ji Yeon would have to grow up as an orphan. But, as we learned, the Sideways story plays as a “happily ever after” for our castaways. For the Kwons, this means reunion as a fully pregnant couple awaiting the birth of their young daughter with the help of Dr. Juliet.

The series of reunions that followed were equally emotional with each one building in intensity. Personally, I found the reunions to be some of the most emotionally satisfying moments of the entire series. The flashbacks to the past, Giacchino’s score, the actors’ measured recognition of these “aha!” moments…the whole thing just worked for me. (Well, except for maybe the Sayid / Shannon thing. Actually, their whole relationship always creeped me out a little.) Taking the cake were Juliet and Sawyer, whose interaction demonstrated the great chemistry these two always had. (I loved it when she told Sawyer, “Maybe you should read the machine it’s rights.”) Jack almost had his moment of recognition with Locke and then later with Kate, but we knew better than to fall for that. This doc’s Daddy issues could only be resolved one way; through opening up his dead father’s coffin at the very end (fittingly). More on that in a later post.

Back on the Island, I loved the symmetry with Jack and Hurley and their “I believe in you” moments. Remember, it was Hurley’s speech in Season 4 that undermined Jack’s leadership and convinced a good number of the castaways to stay with Locke’s camp in New Otherton. As Jack marched headlong to meet his destiny, Hurley stepped forward and professed his belief in Jack as the new Jacob. Little did he know that Jack would reciprocate in like manner. Symmetry like this really made this episode work for me.

Desmond and Jack’s conversation outside the cave was especially important. Desmond tried to convince Jack that thwarting MIB’s plan to blow up the Island didn’t really matter; Desmond had inside information that there was something more to come, “a place where we can be with the ones that we love”. But Jack would have none of it. “All of this matters,” he said authoritatively. And both of them are right. I think this is the producers nodding to those who would criticize their message as a “pie in the sky”, blissful theology. Christians have often been criticized for being “so heavenly minded that they’re of no earthly good.” Jack and Desmond seem to be saying that it’s possible to subscribe to a robust eschatology while affirming the sanctity and value of life in the present. In fact, doesn’t eschatology properly infuse the present with even more meaning than otherwise? This is one of the great legacies of LOST.

My favorite Island scene, though, was the conversation Locke and Jack engaged in while lowering Desmond down the falls into the light. MIB channels Locke’s memories, reminiscing about Jack and Locke’s “man of science / man of faith” arguments in the Hatch. Jack fires back: “You’re not John Locke. You disrespect his memory by wearing his face, but you’re nothing like him. Turns out he was right about most everything. I just wish I could’ve told him that while he was still alive.” A final showdown in the Locke / Jack Squareoff Hall of Fame. I love how the scene ended with the camera looking upward at these two as it descended down the falls, a clear allusion to the Season 1 finale where Jack and Locke found themselves staring down the Hatch.

Desmond’s purpose on the Island was revealed: it seems that his electromagnetic exposure through turning the failsafe key uniquely qualified him to “release the cork” and continue to live. But this spelled doom for the Island and its inhabitants, prompting Locke to claim victory over Jack. However, Desmond’s actions also changed “the rules” for Smokey, as we learned that he was susceptible to injury, a new wrinkle in his constitution that opened the door for his demise.

But the releasing of the cork wreaked havoc on the Island. We see an act of heroism on Ben’s behalf; he pushes Hurley out of the way as a gigantic tree falls. The tree pins Ben and the castaways have to pry him free. But this impulsive act of humanitarianism and free will is not lost on Hurley. His first act as Island Protector is to appoint Ben as his #2, a cabinet position that Linus gladly accepts. Finally, it seems, there is peace on the Island for Benjamin Linus.

But this peace pales in comparison to the peace our castaways experience together in the closing shots at the church. Kate’s comment to Jack on the Island — “Tell me I’m going to see you again.” — they tap into our most natural human inclination when we’re faced with saying goodbye. We want to know that this is possible; we want to know that our love that we feel so strongly and tangibly in the present will somehow live on into something greater than our present reality. And that’s another enduring legacy of this show; because if the finale affirms anything, it affirms the hope that all of this is heading somewhere. What matters along the way is the people we choose to share the journey with. Live together, indeed.

Quick hits:

  • There was something fitting about the way Smokey met his demise. In keeping with the theme of the show, it took a combined effort from both Kate and Jack to kill MIB. Yet again, we see that these characters were meant to live in community with one another.
  • Based on his comments to Locke (acknowledging the presence of the Island’s bright light) and Jack (having an understanding of how good the Sideways world is / would be; remembering that he sat next to Jack on 815), Desmond has full cognizance of both realities, it seems. I guess we were right about him earlier when it was suggested that his role was to serve as some sort of “shepherd” between the Island word and the Sideways, transporting the souls of our heroes to their communal afterlife.
  • Was it just me, or did Sawyer have some of the funniest lines of the season tonight? My personal favorite was when he called MIB “Smokey”. Although Hurley as “Bigfoot” got a chuckle out of me, too.
  • Did anybody else think Claire was gonna blow Miles, Lapidus, and Richard to kingdom come, a la Rousseau? I was worried there for a minute.
  • Richard getting a gray hair. Very cool. He’s no longer ageless, I suppose.
  • How about our boy Lapidus? Looks like they were keeping him around for something heroic after all! And did you catch that little “Amen” escape his lips when he got the Ajira plane in the air?
  • Claire’s salvation is proof that yes, you can come back from the dark side.

As for answers, the finale played about like I expected: short on answers, long on character resolution. And for me, that’s absolutely fine. I would’ve liked a little more information about a few things (in particular: how Jacob’s cabin worked and how long Smokey was contained there), but coming into the finale, I was more interested in how these characters’ stories were going to resolve. And I walk away from six years of this show feeling extremely satisfied with the way the story ended.

How about you? Where does the finale rank in the canon of LOST episodes for you? Top 10? Greatest ever? A colossal flop? Were you satisfied? Or disappointed? Or a little bit of both?

Posted in Television | Tagged | 13 Comments

LOST Season Six: A Finale Prediction

Posted on May 23, 2010 by Jason

I have a prediction re: tonight’s finale. Normally I don’t engage in a lot of theorizing here on A&NY; I mostly just recap and help synthesize what we’ve seen episode to episode. But here, at the eleventh hour, I have a thought, or perhaps a hope, that I just can’t shake. So I’m going to post it here.

I stay away from spoilers like the plague; I even summon the willpower to resist watching the video clip previews ABC releases the day before an episode airs. (This after the now infamous “Mr. Eko Debacle” as it’s called around the Bybee house, where Jason read spoilers prior to a certain Nigerian druglord-turned-priest’s death at the hands of Smokey in Season 3, ruining the emotional weight of such a moment.) Anyway, I avoid spoilers like crazy, so I’m not really basing this on anything but my own conjecture.

Also, since I know some of you like your LOST spoiler-free as well, I’ll respect your desires by posting the theory in the comments section. Again, it’s not a spoiler. But it’s just a thought that I’ve had as I’ve reflecting on the show. Feel free to let me know what you think.

Posted in Television | Tagged | 3 Comments

LOST Season Six: I’ll Never Be Lost Again

Posted on May 23, 2010 by Jason

Well, we’re mere hours from the finale of LOST. Of course, I’ll be watching it and working up a recap tonight — at least part 1 of what I’m sure will be a multi-part recap as I reflect not only on the finale but also the meta-picture of “what it all means”.

So, while you wait for all that heavy, intellectually dense and thought-provoking LOST coverage you’ve come to expect at this blog…I submit to you something completely arcane and fun to whet your appetite for the finale and hold you over until my recap. Enjoy!

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