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Anno Domini

If you're like me, you associate the phrase "In the Year of Our Lord" with centuries past.  No one speaks like that anymore.  It's the kind of thing we associate with Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  Can you imagine being asked, "What year did you graduate high school?" and replying, "I graduated in the year of our Lord 1980?"  People would think you were insane.

The phrase "In the Year of Our Lord" is more commonly known by the abbreviation of its Latin form Anno Domini or AD.  The early church used the phrase to signify that Jesus had fundamentally changed time.  The post-Jesus world was a different place.

What if you and I recovered our sense of AD in 2006?  What if we conceived of this upcoming year in the context of God?  Put aside all our preconceptions and best-laid plans for 2006.  How would our time, our lives be different if we acknowledged 2006 as the year of our Lord?

TV Clergy Not Perfect Enough?

Once again the American Family Association is upset about a TV show no one has seen yet.

NBC's upcoming "The Book of Daniel" apparently portrays an Episcopal priest with a gay son, alcoholic wife and prescription pill problem of his own.  Not American Family enough for the American Family Association.  The character also has visions of an "unconventional" Jesus.  Guess I missed the part in the Gospels where Jesus is conventional.

The AFA sees all this as "mocking Christianity."  I'll reserve judgment until I see the show but frankly, I think it's refereshing to see a show that even deals with the church or Jesus.  Compared to many of the pastors I have met over the years (including me), this guy's life sounds pretty normal.

Ever since that John Ritter portrayed a long-haired country preacher on "The Waltons" the networks have just been out to get us.

This show may turn out to be awful and even offensive, but it's amazing how some Christians' first instinct is to attack any depiction of Christianity that they cannot control.  Regardless of this upcoming series content, read between the lines of their press release and notice all the presuppostions. Evidently, "real" Christians don't have questions about their faith traditions, learn about other religions, have any personal struggles or family members who do.  Apparently, they also have to be rock solid in their beliefs about Jesus before venturing to write fiction that deals with him.

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Welcome

So I figured, let's give blogging a try. Sometimes I have thoughts that don't make for whole sermons or Enews columns. There's fragments of ideas I have from 5 years of Vision and this is where they may end up. Welcome to the conversation