The Wave Motion Gun

If you are reading this blog post, perhaps you were attracted by the title, "The Wave Motion Gun"? If so, this places you firmly as a child of the 80's, or at least aware of one of the forgotten but great cartoons, Star Blazers.

This was in the genre of the Japanese animated shows like Speed Racer, but was much less popular. The Star Blazers rode around in space on a sort of recycled battleship, that also kind of doubled up as an aircraft/spacecraft carrier and submarine when needed! A truly green initiative and perhaps we should consider re-using old battleships this way. I expect part of the consciousness of the Japanese people as their immense WW2 navy was slowly decommissioned over time played a part in this.

But the really cool thing about Star Blazers was the Wave Motion Gun. This was clearly influenced by the Death Star on Star Wars, but in the hands of the good guys. The show used a hodge-podge of physics sounding terminology to let little kids like me know that this weapon packed a wallop -- it could destroy continents...in the cause of justice.

And then don't forget the characters, including the young pilot "Wildstar" and the old salt of a commander, along with the faithful sidekick, spunky woman and a dastardly villain to round out the main cast. For some reason, their uniforms had arrows pointing to their stomachs, akin to t-shirts that might say "baby inside".

So, here's the question: did you see it when you were a kid? Didn't it seem so cool at the time to be on the bridge of a battleship in space?

Maybe I'll think about another great animated show another time, taking a stroll down memory lane with Liono, Cheetara and all the ThunderCats (Ho!).

Titanic's view of heaven hits an iceberg

"It was reassuring to know the person who had fixed it was still on the aeroplane. What are the odds of something like that happening?"

I read an interesting story that reminded me of a theme that plays out in the Bible from beginning to end. A plane heading back to Manchester, England was going to be stranded in Menorca because of a lack of a mechanic to fix a problem, when it was found a mechanic was a passenger on board returning from his holiday. He came forward, fixed the plane and all was well. There was an extra measure of trust because he was with them on the plane!

Ever wonder what is up with all the intricate laws in the Old Testament? In the midst of the very specific instructions on what the furniture should be like (dimensions of the altar, what basin should be used for washing, what proportions of different incense to be burned, etc.) in the place where Israel worshipped the LORD, there is an explanation of what all the fuss is about. The purpose of the Law is to show how an unholy people can dwell with a holy God, and so in the middle of the instructions, the LORD says, "I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God." (Exodus 29. 45,46).

Every human being's experience bears out the effect of the Law, which is to turn up the volume on our awareness of our inability to keep it. But if the Law is so rough on us (it condemns us because we don't keep it), why does the Old Testament constantly describe love for the Law? Because they know that God gave it so that He might dwell with his people. Good news!

The prologue to John's Gospel shows that the great cosmic solution for the breach between the Creator and the creature would come from God himself. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1. 14). When Jesus later explains what his death will accomplish, he speaks in terms of his people dwelling with him: "In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also." (John 14.2,3).

The final scene of the Bible has this in place, as everything reaches its culmination in the new heaven and new earth: "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." (Revelation 21.3,4).

So that puts God firmly at the center of reality, not you and me and what we want heaven to be like. It's not like the Titanic ending, where everything is about Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio's characters having their best day -- the Authoress helpfully pointed out to me -- what about the guy who is a busboy forever -- what if that is not his best day? -- then the center of the universe really is about Kate and Leo's kiss, or it's an illusion). No, heaven is not about you and me and our wants, but about dwelling with God. And at his right hand, as Psalm 16 puts it, there are pleasures evermore.

That concludes our theologically deep post for the week...

The Beautiful Game of Baseball

My friend Chad arranged for some guys to go a ballgame this Saturday. All hail Chad!

Green grass, slow moving game punctuated by strategic moments of excitement, beer and peanuts. Maybe a hot dog filled with nitrates...bliss.


And not any old baseball game, but a game here in New York City. For most people, that evokes the excitement of the new Yankees Stadium or Citifield (the new version of Shea Stadium where this Phillies fan from childhood's hated Mets call home).

But it's not the new stadiums that cost hundreds of millions, or the roster of major leaguers who all earn seven figures that we're going to see. It's minor league ball. YES!

The Brooklyn Cyclones, while a farm team for the Mets I guess, are still a minor league team. And thus there will be no airs of superstardom like A-Rod or even Johnny Damon (who I like from his days on the Red Sox). Just some guys hungry to make it to the big leagues who play hard each night because their stats don't relate to whether they get a performance bonus they might not really need or care about. Rather, they are playing their heart out or they won't play at all. Somehow, the whole atmosphere is all a bit friendlier even with that in mind.

At least it has been at minor league games I've attended in the past. I occasionally don my New Britan Rock Cats cap, enjoying the "who are they?" questions from my conversation partner.

What about you --- are you a minor league or major league fan --- for watching a game live, taking into account all the factors of cost, hassle, crowd and such?


Incidentally, the Phillies Phanatic (picture) is the greatest mascot in baseball, don't you think? I do, as I dressed up in a homemade Phanatic costume as a kid one October...Check out this dual between the Phanatic and an arch-enemy...

If you're stuck in traffic, be thankful...

"What? Be thankful that I'm stuck in traffic!" At least you weren't on the M25 when a giant mammoth showed up, as this video of the BBC show Primeval imagines.

It's a show that considers if there were little holes in time, through which animals/creatures from various epochs came into 21st century Britain. It's a terrific time to consider what impact some pretty fearsome dinosaurs, sabre-tooth tigers and so on might have if they turned up in our day.

Some scientists, zoologists and a guy who is handy with a big gun make up a team who try to get these animals back through to their own time, without giving rise to panic in the general population. The characters are okay, and the series peaked in terms of dramatic drive and plot about two-thirds of the way through season one. But one aspect that is interesting in the second series is that the team engages a mythologist who studies the beasts and creatures of the stories across the ages. The notion is that mythical beasts (such as the Loch Ness monster) are creatures from another era who got stuck in the wrong place, or rather, time. Fun to contemplate!

This has little to do with the overall theme of this blog, I'm merely a sci-fi geek.

And yet! If you are contemplating some travel over the Fourth of July, especially if this involves crossing the Hudson River near New York City, don't sweat the hour wait at the Lincoln Tunnel or George Washington Bridge. Just be glad you haven't met this big fellow on your journey...

Stripped of all foliage

I have London on the brain because I wish I was there right now, attending a ministry conference sponsored by the Proclamation Trust, and sneaking off to a match of two of the tennis. But it wasn't to be so this year! Still, Rockefeller Plaza has a mini-Wimbledon setup outside my office door, so there is some consolation.

Dick Lucas is Rector Emeritus of St Helen's, Bishopsgate in London (I encourage you to visit there or All Soul's, Langham Place or Emmanuel, Wimbledon if you go to London). Dick began the Proclamation Trust, which encourages expository preaching, that is, preaching which is led by the text rather than jumping off from it to tell stories, prove a theological construct, etc.

Alongside the positive instruction on getting the meaning of the Bible across to a congregation, Dick has a number of very helpful, practical warnings for the preacher. A couple that stuck in my head were, "Don't preach your family" and "Beware of telling them the Greek/Hebrew". The former is to realize that your hearers will assemble, over time, a little catalogue of information about your family life. What you and the congregation think is cute is pretty much an intolerable burden for your child. One of the leading causes of Preacher's Kid Syndrome, I am informed.

The second warning to the preacher is to beware of showing off one's knowledge of the original language. This is not to say that in preparation the hard work of understanding the meaning of the text shouldn't be done; rather, it is to recognize that if the preacher says something like "you can only really understand this passage in the Greek", then the non-Greek reader now feels he or she cannot understand the Bible in personal reading. It creates a clericalism of learning rather than ceremony.

Well, I'm pretty careful about heeding that warning about the family, and my feeble linguistic skills help me to avoid the second pitfall. But one instance where I broke the rule was in pointing out that in the New Testament there are two words used for the English word "tree". One is a fruitful, living tree and the other is a dead tree, essentially a pole stripped off leaves. In the New Testament, when Jesus speaks of a tree bearing fruit, he uses the former word, and when the apostles speak of Jesus dying on the cross, they use the latter word. Why? Because in the Old Testament, to be hung on a tree to die was to bear a curse. The apostles explain that Jesus bears the curse of our lawbreaking on himself in his death on the cross.

Now, at the end of Revelation, there is a description of the place "where God will dwell with men, and they will be his people, and God himself will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more..." (Rev 21.3,4). The new heaven and new earth is described as a city, and a river runs through it. And there is found "the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." (Rev 22.2,3).

One would think that this tree is described by the first word (because it is a living, fruitful tree). Not so! The second word is used, the one that is only used in the New Testament to describe the Cross. How marvelous. There is every indication that "the healing of the nations" and life itself is found, eternally, at the Cross of Jesus Christ. Look nowhere else!

"We ourselves now know by experience that there is no place for comfort like the cross. It is a tree stripped of all foliage, and apparently dead; yet we sit under its shadow with great delight, and its fruit is sweet unto our taste." (Charles Spurgeon, on 1 Pet 2:24,25).

Incidentally, since the heavenly city has a river through it, we can take heart that there will very likely be rowing in our eternal experience...

photo above from Hartford Courant newspaper.

if facebook were real...

I was reflecting on how sometimes people in my life know things about my life before I do!

An imagined scenario: I am working and perhaps have an evening meeting that has me home unusually late. Something has happened during the day that my wife, the Authoress, has mentioned to friends on Facebook. Perhaps one of those people attends the meeting with me, and makes the startling statement to me: "so, how do you like your new juicer?". "What? Oh, you read it on the Authoress' facebook status. I didn't know we had a new juicer."

When I go home, it is equally startling to my wife to have me respond, "oh, yeah, I know" when she explains that a new juicer arrived today and how delightful the orange juice is from it.


I'm not really going anywhere with this, except to note that Facebook becomes a point of entry into a home, relationship, family, or a life, even when the door is closed or people are not together. It's sometimes jarring.

This video is a sketch imagining if the protocols and standards on Facebook were acted out in flesh and blood, bricks and mortar, rather than in cyberspace. Somewhat amusing, yet also thought provoking.



We don't have a juicer, by the way.

The first Chinese born Olympic champion

In a Bible study today on Philippians 1, we spoke about how in the Roman world, one would wish someone else "success and happiness". This is true today, as a Christmas card wished my family "a successful and happy 2009".

The Christian hope for life is different. Paul the Apostle wrote to the Christians in Philippi that he laboured for them, and prayed for them. He was the one who first preached the Gospel to them, and he continued to act for their benefit from afar. He says that it was for their "progress and joy in the faith" that he worked.

Progress instead of Success because you never "arrive" as a Christian. Our final chapter is not written in this life, but in the next.

Joy instead of Happiness because the latter is based on circumstances while the former is not, but on an abiding peace and hope.

In the course of our discussion, I made reference to an article on Eric Liddell who was made famous in the American consciousness with the film "Chariots of Fire". Liddell went on to serve as a missionary in China, and died at the end of WW2 in an internment camp. The article describes a fellow Scotsman who locates and marks Liddell's grave, and the impact this has on Liddell's surviving daughter. Here was a man who ran the race!

Photo: Liddell at the 1924 Paris Olympic Games