Is Your Life Boring? Or An Adventure?

This weekend premiered the action adventure, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull twenty years after the last movie. "The newest Indiana Jones adventure begins in the desert Southwest in 1957 - the height of the cold War.  Indy and his sidekick have barely escaped a close scrape with nefarious Soviet agents on a remote airfield."

Indiana Jones leapt onto the movie screen, and turned   archeology into adventure. Is your life an adventure? Don't you know angels are riveted in their seats, while before them unfolds our story? The story of Pentecost is here, on the heels of THE hero's final  breath on Golgotha. Golgotha, also known as the skull, that hill is where theology becomes action. Indiana Jones leaps again onto the movie screen, cleaned house by cracking the whip in surround sound, and turned archeology into adventure.  But I can bet, outside movies, archeology doesn't get you too excited.

"Now, Professor Jones has returned home to Marshall College -- only to find things have gone from bad to worse. His close friend and dean of the college explains that Indy's recent activities have made him the object of suspicion, and the government has put pressure on the university to fire him. On his way out of town, Indiana meets rebellious young Mutt, who carries both a grudge and a proposition for the adventurous archaeologist: If he'll help Mutt on a mission with deeply personal stakes, Indy could very well make one of the most spectacular archaeological finds in history -- the Crystal Skull of Akator, a legendary object of fascination, superstition and fear."

Remember the part when he whipped the gun out of the bad guy's hand? Then he snapped it around up there over a big hole, and swung across like Tarzan!? Yeah, and then he... all the other stuff.

So you see, although normally un-exciting, archeology can be very exciting, at least in an action movie. Likewise, theology, although normally un-exciting, theology can be very exciting. Theology shouted, “Camera, Lights, ACTion!”

Theology stepped out of the class rooms and colleges, no longer trapped in universities, not restrained by human numb-skulls; God is now universal, everywhere. … Sometimes even where we do NOT want Him to be.

I agree, your spiritual life is yours. “It’s personal.” But private? Don't you know? …it's hard to keep "private" things private. They have a way of being broadcast overhead, for all to see. While some things shouldn't happen, other things must be spoken of. Law… Gospel!

Remember our Epistle text:

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes."

The Gospel doesn't shame me. It gives you life, so there's nothing to shrink from. The gospel is "Jesus died." While some  may shrink from such adventure, not venture such adversities, remember the saintly words: “I am not ashamed by the Gospel." I’m not ashamed. It makes me bold, alive. No one gets tired of a GOOOOD story. And with a GRRREAT story you're even excited to tell it.

"Legend says that a crystal skull was stolen from a mythical lost city in the Amazon, supposedly built out of solid gold, guarded by the living dead. Whoever returns the skull to the city temple will be given control over its power."

Gold is tempting. So is power. But on the skull-shaped hill, Golgotha, the skull shined crystal clear the golden city, our treasure prepared for us, God’s kingdom. There the dead are alive. Jesus took ALL the earth… so the hill of the skull is priceless, a Good Friday, where Power is revealed. The power of salvation for the whole Earth, every person. Even flawed heroes or plain zeroes. Inside and outside our circles, both.

"But as Indy and Mutt set out for the most remote corners of   Peru -- a land of ancient tombs, forgotten explorers and a rumored city of gold -- they quickly realize they are not alone in their search. The Soviet agents are also hot on the trail of the Crystal Skull. Chief among them is icy cold, devastatingly beautiful Irina Spalko (played by Cate Blanchett), whose elite military unit is scouring the globe for the eerie Crystal Skull, which they believe can help the Soviets dominate the world … if they can unlock its secrets."

There will be trouble. Wherever there are people, trouble will be. So forgiveness rushes in. What good would an action movie be without some trouble, anyways? Jesus did promise "it'll get  worse before it gets better." But that doesn't stop the adventure. There is finally an end to this militant march. But to get there has its share of tombs and hissing snakes.

With militant and organized demonic soldiers dispatched against me, how will I get out of this mess? Such beauty alluring, telling you that you'd get out of this mess.

It's miraculous really, providential how if-ever Indy gets out of anything. As if it's scripted, and all under the watchful control of professional stunt coordinators. Life is like that for us as well. Angels guiding each step, hands of the Lord  protecting and keeping the worst flames and stunts from harming you more than you can bare up.

Well, sometimes I wish I could get a stunt double, or be as fit as Harrison Ford is 27 years after the first Indiana Jones movie, in 1981, Raiders of the Lost Ark. In 2008, now 64 years old, Harrison Ford joked that he's getting old enough to play his own father. When asked if Harrison Ford was too old to return as Indy, producer Frank Marshall was quoted saying, "It's not the years, it's the mileage." He explained that it would be interesting to see Indy in a different decade, and deal with all  kinds of new and interesting things. The age also adds to Indy as a fallible and therefore believable character."

That draws us in.  A character I can relate to, a hero for us. That's Jesus. To save us from our mess, and show us what a real man can do. Real man. Real hero. …where His divinity is equal with the Father. …whose humanity unites us.

We his army fight, despite the mileage, the rigors of this earthly life. We live! We live, because He lives. Whether 20 years later, 2000 years later, or 2 million years later, it's  not boring, it's action-packed. That's the Gospel.
Amen.

[Blessing]  May the peace  of the Risen Lord, Jesus the Christ, protect your hearts and minds onto life every lasting.