The Da Vinci Dilemma

Ahh yes, it's the Da Vinci time again. The Christian world was in an uproar about the book The Da Vinci Code and now the movie has come out meaning the uproar is back with it. In case you've been stuck on the space station for the last three years the book is about a symbologist, Robert Langdon, that is trying to decipher a code left by the curator of the Louvre after the curator was murdered. The premise is that Jesus was never considered divine by his earliest followers and in fact he married Mary Magdalene and had a child with her. The descendants of Jesus and Mary continue to this day and the Catholic church has covered the whole thing up. That's the nutshell version.

The response from many Christians of both Catholic and Protestant persuasions, has been to protest the movie. Is this response appropriate? I would say that it is true that the historical "facts" that Dan Brown, author of the book, uses are at best highly questionable. Even individuals that are often not fans of conservative Christianity have debunked much of what is said in the book and many of the documents have been shown to be a big joke. Just turn on the History Channel or Discovery or something like that to learn more about these things. Much has been written about this that I don't feel the need to expand on them.

If what the book is saying were true it would definitely strike at the core of Christianity and would mean that my life is a big waste of time since I do this Christianity thing for a living. But we have no reason to believe that it's true so shouldn't we try to stop people from seeing it? I don't think so. Whenever someone gets the great idea to protest something all that happens is that it brings attention to the very thing that you don't want people to see. It causes people that might not have otherwise cared to suddenly long to see it. The truth is that a lot of people are going to see this movie whether or not it gets protested or boycotted.

So if we don't protest or boycott then what should we do? One of the great things about The Da Vinci Code is that it has brought attention to the question of who Jesus really was. It allows us the opportunity for dialogue with those who may have never otherwise considered these issues of Jesus' divinity. Let us take the time to broadcast the fact that there has never been someone like Jesus and that his life and death did in fact change the world. Not because of anything that Constantine did, but because of what Jesus did.

Resurgence Conference in Seattle

I recently went to a conference in Seattle at Mars Hill Church. It was a bunch of guys with cool shirts and crazy hair that came together to talk about doing church in a time of changing philosophies of thought. Other than the speakers needing more direction in their topics it was a good conference. But the obvious highlight was Tim Keller from Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan.

God has given this man an ability to communicate ideas that have been floating around in my head without clarity for some time. The main idea that I came away with was that we all are working towards is the return of shalom. Shalom is the way that it is supposed to be. As a result of the fall of man in sin there are aspects to this world that are not the way it's supposed to be. There is not supposed to be sickness. There is not supposed to be natural disasters. There is not supposed to be depression. There is not supposed to be death. Shalom is when all of those are taken away and we return to the way it was always meant to be.

I appreciated it when he said that when Jesus performed miracles it was not supernatural, but rather the absolute natural. In other words, it is not natural (the way it is supposed to be) to be blind, so when Jesus takes away the blindness he is returning it to the natural (shalom). This opens up so many ideas of what mercy ministry to the poor is all about. Or our responsibility to care for the environment. It is not "natural" for their to be people in need. It is not "natural" for the earth to be polluted. Caring for people in need and caring for the environment is being a part of a return of shalom.

How exciting it could be to be part of the earth's return to shalom, even if it is in a small way.