Pastoral Musings on Hollowywood Sexuality and Morality

So Sunday night I read several movie reviews of movies that have recently come out. I was struck by one prevailing theme: sexual obsession. If one thing was the common denominator, beyond the fact that all are movies and all contained expletives (a sorry commentary on American vernacular creativity to say the least), they all fixated on sexuality and not in a good way either. Sadly the twisted warpings of sexuality that these movies either contain or glamorize are what we in our fallen humanity, our depraved debauchery we call existence, celebrate as "entertainment". Such is probably all too fitting a term, I wonder what kinds of thoughts and emotions and desires we entertain as we view those perverted spectacles, which makes me wonder what kind of perverted spectacles we ourselves have towards sexuality. I wonder what thoughts and emotions and desires that Jesus entertains as He watches us watch smut. I wonder how much smut a bride can imbibe before she becomes a smut slut. Sadly, how much indeed is said against us for using sin as entertainment. I am not talking about failings for the sake of the plot, but the on-screen idol-fests we call "sex-scenes". How long will we delight in evil and claim our love is for God and not for the world. We celebrate evil, and laugh with joy at some of its implications. We make light of sexuality, furthering the weight of our improbity. How long will we look with pleasure on that which God looks on with grief and rage? How long will we disconnect entertainment with what we entertain in our hearts, minds, souls, and bodies. That is to say, how long will be live in the denial that is "What I watch has no bearing on my heart, mind, and soul" as our wants, thoughts, and feelings contort themselves to see the world through the lens of Hollowywood sexuality and Hollowywood morality? Probably for about 90-120 min. depending on the movie...or at least that is what we would like to think. But just like downloading a virus-infested program that we like only takes a few minutes, but the effects last much longer and often appear long after the deadly deed, so our feasting on fleshliness may seem do nothing to affect our system, but time validates all too well. Just as we download a program or video with intentions of mindless and momentary pleasure that later slows and kills our system, so too we watch all kinds of "entertainment" with intentions of mindless and momentary pleasure that unbeknownst to us affects our spiritual "system" and slows our responsiveness to God and His Word and eventually leaves us no better than that computer sitting in your basement that doesn't work anymore from the constant internalization of viri. As Jesus says, "what comes out of a man was first inside him." So the real question is how care are we being with our "entertainment"? Do we even see what things our "entertainment" entertains in us? Is Hollowywood sexuality our "entertainment" or our "agrievement" (who loves coining terms....I do...that is to say, yes I know that is not a word, but it rhymes and you know what I mean)? Have we allowed Hollowywood morality to become the one we live by and glamorize, or is it the Holy One's morality we live by and glorify?

So this post is all over the place, but that is why I called it musings, aside from the fact that I find this kind of poetic writing amusing (have you caught the preponderance of wordplays yet?)

Much love to all who read this
Grace and Peace and Hope from God the Father through Jesus Christ His Son by the Holy Spirit His Spirit
Pastor Anthony

Jesus on Prayer in Luke 11.1-13

¹And it happened when He was in some spot praying, as He finished, someone among His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just like John also taught his disciples. ²And He said to them, “Whenever you pray, say,
            Father,
            Your Name be treated as holy!
            Your Kingdom come!
            Our bread that we need daily to survive be giving to us daily!
            And forgive us our sins,
            Because we ourselves also continually forgive everything that’s owed to us!
            And don’t bring us into testing/temptation!

⁵And He said to them, “Imagine that one of you has a friend and travels to him in the middle of the night and says to him, ‘Friend, loan me three loaves of bread, ⁶because a friend of mine came by road to me and I don’t have what I will set before him.’ ⁷And to answer that guy would say from inside, ‘Stop bothering me! The door has already been locked and my kids are with me in the bed. I am not able to give to you after standing up.’ ⁸I say to you, Even if he won’t give to him after getting up because of being his friend, for sure because of his shamelessness after getting himself up he will give him as much as he needs.

⁹And I personally say to you, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. ¹⁰For everyone who asks receives and the one who seeks finds and to the one who knocks it is/will be opened.

¹¹And a son will ask what father among you for a fish, and instead of a fish will he hand over a snake to him? ¹²Or also he will ask for an egg—will he hand over a scorpion to him? ¹³So if you, even though you’re wicked, know to be giving good gifts to your kids, how much more the Father [probably drop “the One”] from Heaven will give the Holy Spirit to those who are asking Him. 

Main point 

Jesus Gives us a model prayer and then explains that God our Father really will answer our prayers, especially if we are asking for His Holy Spirit.

Pray prayers like the one Jesus models, trusting God to answer, because He is Our Father Who will surely answer, especially we should pray for the Holy Spirit, because that is the Gift our Father really wants to give to us.

Have you ever wondered what your prayers should look like? Have you ever wondered if there was some secret praying technique that would convince God to answer your prayers? Have you ever wondered whether God really answers prayers? Have you ever wondered what prayer our Heavenly Father really wants us to ask but also really wants to answer? Well today we will get answers to all those questions by looking at Jesus’ teaching on prayer in the book of Luke, chapter 11, vv.1-13.

1.      Outline:

a.       Model Prayer

b.      Chiastic Discourse on Prayer Effectiveness

                                                              i.      Illustration # 1: Some guy’s midnight request of his friend

                                                            ii.      Explication: pray, because God really does answer prayer

                                                          iii.      Illustration # 2: Some father’s response to his son’s request for food

2.      Rhetorical Flow

a.       Model Prayer

b.      If you can get a friend who doesn’t want to answer to answer, don’t you think God Who is our Father and Who wants to answer will answer

c.       Pray, pray, pray, because it works, works, works—i.e., God answers, answers, answers

d.      If you wicked fathers give good gifts to your kids who ask, don’t you think God will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him (i.e., His kids).

3.      Miscellaneous Notes

a.       V.5 is actual a question, but it is too complicated a question to render as a question in English

b.      It is almost impossible to tell whether in v.10 whether it should be a present or a future.

c.       Ask, seek, knock are present tense

d.      The first illustration is not about a technique we use in prayer or some concern on God’s part, but about the fact that the request really will get answered no matter what

e.       It is shamelessness, not persistence—this is not a positive idea usually, so probably refers to the asker, rather than the askee, unless it is taking on a new nuance of avoidance of shame

Applications

1.      We just need to ask God in prayer

2.      God is our Father

3.      God is the God Who answers

4.      We need to pray repeatedly, expecting repeated answers

5.      We don't need to worry about God answering our prayers in a cruel way

6.      We should trust God to give good gifts

7.      We should pray for the Holy Spirit, for that is Gift that God really wants to give to us 

Jesus on Prayer in Matthew 6.5-15

⁵”And whenever you (pl.) are praying, don’t be like the pretenders, because they love to be praying while standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, so that they would be clear to men. Truly, I say to you, they are fully getting paid their reward. ⁶But whenever you yourself are praying, go into your inner room and after you’ve locked your door to pray to your Father, the One in the hidden place, and your Father, the One Who sees in the hidden place will give back to you.

⁷But when you are praying, don’t use the same words over and over again, just like the Gentiles, because they think that by/because of their long-windedness they will be listened to. ⁸So don’t be like them, because your Father knows what things you have need of before you ask Him. ⁹Therefore, in this way be praying yourselves:

‘Our Father, the One in the Heavens

Your name be reverenced!

¹⁰Your Kingdom come,

Your Will happen,

Like in Heaven also on earth!

¹¹Our bread that we need daily give to us today!

¹²And forgive us the things we owe like we also have forgiven those who owe us.

¹³And don’t carry us into temptation,

Rather deliver us from the evil one!

¹⁴Because if you forgive men their wrongdoings, your Father, the Heavenly One will also forgive you. ¹⁵But if you won’t forgive men, your Father won’t forgive you your wrongdoings either.

The main point: 

Jesus teaches how to pray: 1) not with public hypocrisy for attention, but with private humility for God’s reward; 2) not using lots of words and powerful phrases, but with an honest, simply, God-focused prayer; 3) not with unforgiveness, but with forgiveness, so you can be forgiven—the power of prayer does not come from the multiplicity of words, but with the multiplicity of honesty and forgiveness. Jesus is hammering home unhypocritcal prayer. Jesus weaves both honest simplicity and lack of hypocrisy together in vv.7-15.

1.      Outline:

a.       Don’t be public hypocrites (v.5)

b.      Do be private legitimates (v.6)

c.       Don’t be babbling pagans (vv.7-8)

d.      Do be praying Christians (vv.9-13)

e.       Do be forgiving forgivens (vv. 12, 14)

f.       Don’t be unforgiving unforgivens (v.15)

2.      Structural notes:

a.       There seems to be something of a chiastic structure to this passage; however, it is not a clean chiasm, but a more fluid and blurred on.

                                                              i.      vv.5-6 = anti-hypocrisy

                                                            ii.      vv.7-8 = anti-manipulation/prolixity/power-words

                                                          iii.      vv.9-13 = pro-honest simplicity and humility

                                                          iv.      v.12, 14-15 = anti-hypocrisy, pro-power

b.      The power of prayer does not come from its publicity or prolixity, but from its humility and consistency 

On Assassination...

It is perhaps a more complicated question than it may seem at first glance, especially if one is using utilitarian ethics (i.e. the ends justify the means). However, sending someone to hell as an execution of justice is by no means wrong, although it the prerogative of the state and not the individual. --Rom. 13

The Joy and Sobriety of Justice

So apparently about a week ago Usama Bin Laden met his end, along with his Maker. May the Lord have mercy on him, since this is most likely the beginning of a terribly unpleasant eternity for him. People cheer that justice is done, but for Usama the justice of God's wrath has only just begun with no end ever to come, unless he recanted his idolatry and turned to Jesus in faith, which is itself rather unlikely. Let us both celebrate the justice of God as much as we are sobered by its severity and humbled by the grace we ourselves have received in Christ and as we are sobered by the absolute eternal hell Jesus took for us in the moment of His Own death! JESUS ROCKS!!! ABBA ROCKS!!! THE HOLY SPIRIT ROCKS!!!

The Grand Reversal

They taunted Jesus, "You said You could raise the the temple in three days if we destroyed, how about You get Yourself down off that cross! Can You do that?!" But Jesus wasn't about to come down off that cross because He was planning to come up from the grave as Victor over All, even death, but that came through having His Temple torn down! Jesus wasn't going to bring Himself down, He was going to raise Himself up!

The Balance of Grace

The Christian life is a hard balance of being devastated by our personal sinfulness and exuberant over God grace to us in Christ by the Spirit, i.e., to cling to God's grace without abusing it (using it to sin more, instead of being compelled by it to sin less and be more broken by our sin). Grace indeed compels us to joy and freedom as much as it compels us to Godliness not sinfulness.