The OOC

Sunday sermon (Matthew 5:9)

(Sermon Series on Matthew) The Beatitudes: Becoming Subversives for the Sake of the Kingdom. More on the countercultural character of Christ.
Ron Lutjens, senior pastor, preaching.

Sunday sermon (1 Peter 1:13-16)

Sunday sermon (Matthew 5:8)

(Sermon Series on Matthew) The Beatitudes:  Becoming Subversives for the Sake of the Kingdom. More on the countercultural character of Christ.
Ron Lutjens, senior pastor, preaching.

Here’s a good article that suggests evangelicals are improving the image of Christianity (and in a way that I would imagine pleases God, I might add):

The majority of these centrists, like the traditionalists, oppose gay marriage and abortion on demand. The religious differences between the groups lies, according to Mr. Green, “in emphasis and tactics.” Centrist evangelicals are less likely to explicitly proselytize and to announce that non-Christians are going to hell. They’ve tried to bring greater racial diversity to their churches, believe in a broader role for women in society, and are more likely to view homosexual behavior as a discrete sin rather than to blame homosexuals as a class–for, say, terrorist attacks.

Amen. But the “centrist” label, like “moderate,” still connotes middle-of-the-roadness, fence-sitting and lack of commitment, and these evangelicals are not antithetical to “traditionalism” insofar as it seeks after the true origins of the faith. Can’t we think of something more accurate? How about “authentic evangelicals” or “faithful evangelicals? “Genuine” is perhaps most to the point but admittedly sounds a bit immodest.

Sunday sermon (Matthew 5:7)

(Sermon Series on Matthew) The Beatitudes:  Becoming Subversives for the Sake of the Kingdom. More on the countercultural character of Christ.
Mark Tucker, associate pastor, preaching.

In an effort to get people writing/reviewing popular culture, I’d like to introduce a hopefully fun little idea that I’m calling the “7-Point Review” — a quick way to review movies, books, music and other art forms. The idea is to convey a few main thoughts on whatever you’ve just seen, read or listened to. Since full-length reviews take time to write, this hopefully will inspire us to write more often and cover a wider variety of subjects. Of course, if we feel like it, we can go back and “flesh out” one or more of the bulletpoints later to make a more traditional review (my personal goal is to do one of these for every movie I see).

So without further ado, I’ll begin with a 7-Point Review of Woody Allen’s latest film, Match Point:

Match Point

1. I liked it better the first time when it was called “Crimes and Misdemeanors.” As Megan said, it’s a younger, sexier version of that film.
2. It revisits themes of guilt/conscience and luck/chance.
3. It has an interesting ghost-visitation scene a la Macbeth.
4. Humble recommendation to the legendary director: When you have a scene in which the detective wakes up in the middle of the night with a “I know who did it!” revelation, it’s much better if it’s really a revelation rather than something that was explicitly already known to the audience (perhaps a sign that Woody Allen is losing steam).
5. A Woody Allen movie just isn’t a Woody Allen movie without Woody Allen in the movie. As Megan said, Woody Allen appearing in it “would’ve ruined it,” which is kind of my point: It only felt like a WA film at the beginning (with the Woody Allen font in the opening credits — hat tip: Megan) and the end, when we hear some good philosophical dialog about how people justify their actions and how “chance” affects people’s lives. The other 90% of the movie is a self-serving, drawn out — if passionately drawn out — affair of two beautiful, selfish people; not exactly compelling art unless you’re interested in the eye candy of wealthy, young, sexy British people.
6. All the same, it’s got some classic WA touches: Riverside scenes, matinee movie scene and scratchy-quality opera music overdubs but too few philosophical or intellectual considerations and too little humor.
7. Recommendation: Go rent Crimes and Misdemeanors instead.