So far The Prisoner of Azkaban has followed a similar trajectory to the first two Harry Potter novels. There’s been some drama in the classrooms, Harry’s hearing strange voices and Draco Malfoy is still the worst. Things have picked up with Sirius Black allegedly making his way into Hogwarts and Harry taking a tumble off of his broomstick.

Below are some reflections from chapters 6-9 of The Prisoner of Azkaban.

Professor Sybil Trelawney

The professor of Divination is a little nutty. As I wrote in my reflection on chapters 1-5, I can understand Christians taking issue with the divination class. Using tea leaves and crystal balls to tell the future definitely falls outside of God’s intentions for a good life. In spite of her witch of Endor vibe, Trelawney had a very interesting line.

“Broaden your minds, my dears, and allow your eyes to see past the mundane!”

That statement reminds me a lot of something Paul had to say.

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” – 2 Corinthians 4:18

Both Trelawney and Paul understand that there is something more to this life than what we can see. The difference is that Trelawney wants her students to look for something that doesn’t exist while Paul wants the Corinthians to look at the deeper reality of the universe. The unseen things of God are eternal and should be the focus of our lives. They also provide a stronger foundation for our lives than palm reading and fire omens.

The Boggart

Professor Lupin is the new teacher of Defense Against the Dark Arts. In his first class he has the students combat a boggart. A boggart is a creature that takes the form of its victim’s greatest fears. The boggart turned into a spider, a mummy and Professor Snape, among other fears. Even though I have an unfounded fear of zombies and vampires, I wish for the days that my greatest fears could take a physical form. As we get older our greatest fears are no longer monsters or insects but ideas like insecurity, insignificance and ineptitude. Unfortunately there aren’t a lot of ways to laugh at insecurity and insignificance. To face down fears like those, we need to trust that our futures and our identities are firmly planted in who we are in Christ. Even Neville faced down his fears; with Christ’s love and grace we should be able to do the same thing.

Severus Snape

I don’t think I should like Severus Snape as much as I do. Even though I haven’t seen any of the movies, I know that Alan Rickman plays the character of Snape. I’ve really liked Alan Rickman since he played Sherriff Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Snape is unfair and treats Harry, Ron and Hermione unjustly. In The Sorcerer’s Stone Snape tries protecting Harry from Quirinus Quirrell and in The Prisoner of Azkaban he seems genuinely concerned for the safety of the students. For all of the good things he’s done, I mostly like Snape because I picture Alan Rickman in my mind when I read about him.

I hope Sirius Black lives up to the hype. I’m excited for him to finally make his grand appearance. The Prisoner of Azkaban has been good so far and, as things pick up, I may have a hard time sticking to my reading schedule.

What thoughts do you have from chapters 6-9 of The Prisoner of Azkaban?

A month before its scheduled release, G.I. Joe: Retaliation has been postponed for nine months. After sinking millions of dollars into promoting its June 29 release, Paramount postponed G.I. Joe: Retaliation in order to post-convert it to 3D. I was really looking forward to G.I. Joe: Retaliation. The Rock looked amazing and I was pretty sure that Channing Tatum died early on. Now I’ll have to wait nine months to see Duke die and ninjas fight on the side of a mountain.

Postponing G.I. Joe: Retaliation seems like a pretty bad call. Here are some biblical bad calls.

Saying “No” to Moses

I really liked The Prince of Egypt and the relationship that it portrayed between Moses and Pharaoh. Maybe it was that relationship which made it difficult for Pharaoh to take Moses seriously when he stood before the throne. Looking back, though, it really was a bad call for Pharaoh to say “no” to Moses. Had I been Pharaoh I would have given up after all the water everywhere turned to blood. I almost passed out when I saw someone pull out an IV, I don’t think I could handle blood in my Evian bottle. It’d be like thick, warm, salty Kool-Aid.

Taking a Census

David was a man after God’s own heart. He knew what it meant to wholeheartedly pursue God only because he so often wholeheartedly ran away from God. David’s most famous sin is the adultery he committed with Bathsheba and the subsequent murder, cover-up and abuse of power. David also screwed up later in his life when he took a census. Instead of depending on God’s strength and power, David wanted to know how powerful he was on his own. Taking that census was definitely a bad call since it led to the death of 70,000 of David’s people.

Killing Jesus

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that killing the Son of God wouldn’t end well. In The Avengers Tony Stark tells Loki that there’s no way things will end well for him. Someone really should have told Satan the same thing. I wonder if Satan threw himself a little party with piñatas and hummus when Jesus died. Only to have the party spoiled when Jesus showed up, broke down the door like Jack Nicholson and ascended with many captives. That makes me laugh. Of course killing the Son of God was a bad call because he’s the Son of God. The beautiful paradox is that Christ’s death was a bad call for all the powers of death and darkness but the best call for the rest of the universe.

These were literally bad calls of biblical proportions. I don’t think that postponing G.I. Joe: Retaliation is as bad as saying “no” to Moses or killing the Son of God. Though I’m still pretty bummed. I was actually looking forward to G.I. Joe: Retaliation but now I’ll just have to see The Avengers again.

What other biblical bad calls can you think of?

I hear about a lot of other youth pastors and the struggles they face in their jobs.

They have to work crazy hours.

They have to take vacation time to go to summer camp.

They have senior pastors who can’t remember their families’ names.

When I hear about the struggles they face, I end up feeling pretty guilty for how God has blessed me with the job that I have.

I love my church.

I thoroughly enjoy my job and the people I work with.

I’m proud to call my senior pastor my senior pastor.

God chooses to bless whom he’s going to bless and we shouldn’t argue about it. There are people far more deserving of God’s favor, though, who don’t appear to have been blessed as much as I have. I know I’m basically a screw-up, but God still chooses to bless me even when I don’t deserve it.

The reality is that none of us deserve God’s blessings. It seems like we have an easier time accepting the trials and struggles. It’s easier for us to understand the hardness of Battlestar Galactica than the utopia of Star Trek. But just like we can never hope to understand a God whose ways are not our ways, we’ll never fully understand why he chooses to bless some and not others.

Really, I don’t know why God orchestrated my life so I ended up in amazing job, with amazing people at a church where I met my wife. And I really don’t know why people better than me are unemployed, toiling in jobs they can’t stand or still looking for Mr. or Mrs. Right.

The ways in which God blesses us shouldn’t make us feel guilty. When God blesses us we should be grateful and then look for ways to bless others. Feeling guilty because of God’s blessings doesn’t do anyone any good; it keeps us from thanking God and thinking about others.

We just need to accept that God is good even if we don’t understand it, even if we think he should be good to others before he’s good to us.

If God is giving us Gene Roddenberry’s utopia then he wants us to bring that blessing to those aboard Galactica. We may not deserve that kind of blessing but it shouldn’t surprise us. God is good, he loves us and he wants to bless us. And when God does bless us we shouldn’t feel guilty, but we should strive to be like God by loving and blessing those around us.

How do you resolve with the guilt that comes with blessing?

As a pastor I sit in a lot of meetings. Yesterday I had an eight-hour meeting with the rest of the pastoral staff at our church. It was a good meeting and we hopefully gained some clarity for where God wants us to go during this next season of ministry. Even though it was a good meeting and I like all of my coworkers, an eight-hour meeting is still an eight-hour meeting.

My meeting was long but it was still better than these nerdy meetings.

Death Star

I wouldn’t want to sit in any meeting with Darth Vader, much less one about missing Death Star plans. In A New Hope, Admiral Motti got a little lippy with Darth Vader and suggested that the Death Star was more powerful than the Force. Darth Vader found Motti’s lack of faith disturbing and proceeded to Force choke him. I’ve been in some pretty heated meetings where colleagues passionately tried to communicate their point of view. I’ve never seen people come to blows in a meeting much less one person attempt to strangle another person. I’m happy to have missed that meeting on the Death Star and, since I’m not an old white dude, I probably wouldn’t have been invited anyway. The Empire is racist.

Council of Elrond

Rivendell seems like the perfect place for an off-site meeting. It’s a beautiful setting to relax. There are rivers for team building activities. There’s a museum for the boring people. Even though I would love to be at a meeting in Rivendell, I wouldn’t have wanted to be at the Council of Elrond. Wizards, men, elves, dwarves and hobbits gathered to decide the fate of the One Ring. The meeting itself wasn’t that bad, but a lot of the people there committed to a dangerous journey to the heart of Mordor. I wouldn’t have wanted to volunteer for that journey but I would have felt bad if no one from my group stepped up.

Helicarrier

Before the Avengers assembled they had to, like James described, persevere through some trials. Their main trial took place aboard S.H.I.E.L.D.’s helicarrier during a meeting. Not to spoil it for those who haven’t yet seen The Avengers (seriously, see it, you’re losing your nerd cred), but tempers flared up and someone got angry who you wouldn’t like when he’s angry. Watching the Avengers’ meeting, it’s nice to know that even earth’s mightiest super heroes have a bad meeting every now and then. It makes me feel better about some of our less-than-productive meetings.

I didn’t get into ministry for the meetings but I know meetings play a vital role in the work that God wants us to do. There’s nothing better than coming together with other people, listening to the Holy Spirit, and moving forward to where God wants us to go.

And, as long as no one gets Force choked, it’s a pretty good meeting.

What other nerdy meetings would you have been happy to miss?

It took the better part of two years but Alycia and I finally got a dog. We had said that we didn’t want to have a dog while living in an apartment. However, once we saw that face, we knew we’d found our first dog. We named her Elphie and she has been a great pet so far.

Not all pets are as great, as Elphie. Below are some of the worst pets of nerdom.

Muffit

I liked the original Battlestar Galactica but couldn’t stand Boxey or his robotic dog Muffit. Muffit was the worst. He was a robotic daggit that was created to replace Boxey’s dog that had died in the initial Cylon attack. Muffit made all sorts of weird gyroscopic noises while walking and he sounded like he was barking through a voice box. In Battlestar Galactica humans played God and created cybernetic life forms. While being pushed to the edge of extinction by the Cyclons was bad, the worst result of their playing God was definitely Muffit.

Spot

It makes sense that an android striving for humanity would keep a pet. I just don’t know why Data would choose a cat instead of a dog. Cats, in general, are all the worst parts of humanity. They’re cold, distant and indifferent. Dogs on the other hand are warm, loving and excited. Spot was like every other cat in that she didn’t really like most people and even attacked Commander Riker. Alycia grew up with cats and wasn’t sure that she wanted a dog. After 20 minutes with Elphie, though, she said that she was falling in love. Maybe Data would have been more successful in his journey toward humanity had he picked a dog instead of a cat.

Jonesy

When I was watching Alien last week I kept wondering why Ripley was so concerned with that stupid cat. I’m already very fond of Elphie, but if I had to choose between her or getting away from an alien, I would ditch her at warp speed. Ripley was more than willing to leave three of her crewmembers in the airlock, even if it meant one of them would die. When it comes to a stupid cat, though, she abandons all reason and devotes her precious time to finding Jonesy.

I didn’t think we would ever have a dog while living in an apartment. Elphie has changed our lives a little bit, though, and she’s pretty awesome. One of my good friends once said that pets are evidence of God’s goodness. Pets don’t really serve a purpose other than to bring a little happiness into our lives. God gives them to us to make us happy and that shows a little of his goodness.

I’m pretty sure Satan is responsible for robotic dogs and reason-reducing cats.

What are some other awful nerdy pets?

The Prisoner of Azkaban started very much like the first two Harry Potter books. Harry is back with the Dursleys and his magic again gets him into trouble. I hope one of two things happens by the end of the series: that Harry doesn’t have to go back to the Dursleys’ during summer vacation or they have a change of heart and reconcile themselves to Harry.

I enjoyed the first five chapters and, as always, things really pick up when everyone gets back to Hogwarts. Below are some reflections from chapters 1-5 of The Prisoner of Azkaban.

Trouble

Harry is always worried about getting in trouble: with the Dursleys, with Dumbledore, with the Ministry of Magic. It makes sense because Harry is 13. Even though I’m over twice Harry’s age I worry about the same thing. Whenever anyone says “we need to talk”, I always assume the worst and that I am somehow in trouble. A lot of us have that fear of getting in trouble when we’re children but it sometimes lingers into adulthood and our lives with God. Sometimes we’re so worried about getting in trouble with God that we focus solely on sin management. We think that if we can just avoid sin then we won’t get in trouble with God. Unfortunately, when we just think about not getting in trouble with God, we miss out on so much more that God wants to do in and through our lives.

Aunt Marge

Aunt Marge is just plain mean. I thought Vernon, Petunia and Dudley were bad, but Marge makes them look like fluffy Ewoks. There really isn’t any excuse for how Marge treats Harry and the things that she said about his parents. I really don’t even feel bad that Harry accidentally inflated her like Violet Beauregarde. I’m definitely not the nicest person I know but I hope that I’m kinder than Marge. Kindness is one of the fruits of the Spirit. If we’re pursuing God and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in our lives, then kindness should be evident. We may not be the nicest people in the world but we definitely shouldn’t be the nastiest.

Divination

I can understand why people take issue with Harry Potter. One of his classes is Divination and it’s all about predicting the future. Obviously divination isn’t a good practice and the witch of Endor definitely isn’t a biblical role model. Having read about Harry’s class schedule, though, I don’t feel compelled to grab a stick and try to find some water or predict my future. God doesn’t want us to depend on divination or fortune tellers because they don’t hold our futures in their hands; he does. All the days of our lives are ordained in God’s book and he is the one in whom we need to place our trust. With our trust firmly placed in God, we can live our lives securely knowing that he will work everything for our good and his purposes.

So far I’m enjoying The Prisoner of Azkaban. I’m very excited to see what happens with Sirius Black and what the escaped convict has to do with the boy wizard.

What are your thoughts from the first five chapters of The Prisoner of Azkaban?

The website BuildTheEnterprise.org (which wasn’t working that well at the time of publishing) seeks to build a working replica of the U.S.S. Enterprise. The ship, which wouldn’t have warp drive or transporters, would have a nuclear powered ion engine for exploring our solar system.

I’m not smart enough to be an astronaut but I would do anything I could to be a crewmember of the Enterprise. Seeing as how the estimated cost is $1 trillion, I might have some time to get a little smarter and a lot better at physics, astronomy and engineering.

Below are some biblical artifacts that I would also enjoy seeing recreated.

Noah’s Ark

There are groups that are trying their best to prove that Noah’s Ark is on some mountain in Jordan. I’ve been to Jordan and I didn’t see it. I’d rather those groups stop trying to find Noah’s actual Ark and start recreating Noah’s Ark. Imagine the possibilities! A fully functioning Noah’s Ark would be quite the attraction. It would be the best of two worlds: an exotic cruise liner and a world-class zoo. The Ark wouldn’t have the best amenities but who needs a private room when there are koala bears?

Tower of Babel

Burj Khalifa is currently the world’s tallest building. The building is 2,717 feet tall and is located in Dubai. I don’t know how tall the Tower of Babel was, but I have a hard time believing humans 3,000 years ago built something over a half a mile tall. The problem with rebuilding the Tower of Babel is that it wasn’t a righteous endeavor like Noah’s Ark. There’s a good chance that if someone set out to rebuild the Tower of Babel the project would be cursed from the beginning. Like the Cubs, The Wizard of Oz and odd-numbered Star Trek movies, the recreated Tower of Babel would be bad news.

Solomon’s Temple

Standing at the Western Wall was one of the greatest experiences of my life. If I was that moved by the ruins of the Temple, I can’t imagine what I would have felt standing before the Temple in its glory. I know there are some Armageddon-like fears associated with the rebuilding of the Temple but I don’t want any of that. I really just want to see some golden angels and a herd of bronze oxen. I don’t know if the Temple would cost as much as the Enterprise but, considering the state of the world’s economy, there probably better ways for Israel to spend its money.

Whenever the Enterprise is built I want to sign up. I’m definitely not going to abandon the ministry for a career in Starfleet, though. Hopefully they’ll need a chaplain.

What biblical artifacts would you like to see recreated?

In preparation for Prometheus, I finally sat down and watched Alien for the first time. I have put off watching Alien because it scared me. The movie was very intense but I don’t think it will give me nightmares or keep me up at night.

Below are some reflections I had while watching Alien.

Bigness and Intimacy

I mostly know Alien director Ridley Scott from his epic movies like Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven. With that in mind, I thought that Alien would be a large, epic movie. I was very wrong. Instead of a sweeping space opera, Alien was a very small and intimate movie. There are only seven characters and most of the movie takes place within the confines of a small ship. Gladiator was big and Alien was intimate. It’s hard for movies to be both. God on the other hand has bigness and intimacy figured out. He’s the all-powerful creator of the universe yet he intimate lyand passionately loves us. He knows how many stars are in the heavens but he also knows how many hairs are on our head. I enjoyed the bigness of Gladiator and the intimacy of Alien. I enjoy that God has both.

Community

As stated above part of the intimacy in Alien comes from the small crew aboard the Nostromo. The seven crewmembers form a tightknit community that doesn’t always get along. As the alien begins wreaking havoc aboard the ship, though, they realize their best hope for survival is to band together. Thankfully we don’t have to deal with acid-spewing aliens in our everyday lives, but our best hope for success is still banding together with other people. God created us to be in community and we are at our best when we connect our lives to others. This has particular meaning for me, because it’s the community of marriage that will allow me to sleep after watching Alien. Because my life is connected to Alycia’s, she’ll be there to help protect me as we go to sleep.

Fear Not

I wrote about by longtime fear of the Alien movies. After finally watching Alien, though, it wasn’t that scary. It was a good movie and definitely suspenseful, but not nearly as frightening as I had built it up in my mind to be. A lot of times our fears aren’t nearly as big as we make them out to be. That is especially true when we choose to obey God’s command to “fear not”. When taken on their own, our fears can seem extremely large and imposing. When compared to our God who is infinitely powerful and infinitely loving, they don’t seem that bad. We just need to obey God when he says to “fear not”, especially when it comes to fears of future and provision, not just aliens and facehuggers.

I faced a fear in watching Alien and I’m excited to sit down and watch Aliens next. I’ve heard that the third and fourth Alien movies aren’t that great, but maybe they’ll help fill out my Prometheus experience.

My newfound courage has helped me conquer Alien; maybe it will also help me conquer church greeting time this weekend.

What are your memories or thoughts about Alien?

I love Star Trek: First Contact. It’s easily the best of the Next Generation films. It’s not as good as The Wrath of Khan but I’d put First Contact up there with The Voyage Home and The Undiscovered Country.

In First Contact the Enterprise and her crew must keep the Borg from preventing humanity’s first warp flight, which will lead to first contact with the Vulcans and a new era for Earth.

I’ve been thinking a lot about God’s grace lately and I think First Contact has helped me understand it a little better.

For most of my life I’ve had a pretty shallow view of grace. I knew it was God’s grace that saved me. It’s only because God graciously poured out his grace on the cross that I can be in a right relationship with him.

But I thought that the cross was the end of grace.

I thought grace was a one-time thing.

I thought that grace got me right with God and then left me to my own devices.

I was wrong, though. Grace is a lot like warp drive.

In First Contact, it’s Zefram Cochrane’s initial warp drive experiment that attracts the attention of the Vulcans and leads to first contact. Warp drive initiated humanity’s first steps into a larger universe but it also helped them continue in that larger universe.

Grace is the same way. Grace initiates us into a new reality but it also sustains us and helps us make the most out of that new reality.

I’m tired of grace being this static thing that happened 2,000 years ago and only influenced my life when I accepted Jesus into my life at 5-years-old. I want grace to be an active reality that I experience on a daily basis. I want grace to fuel the engine of my spiritual life, as I become more and more the person God intended me to be.

Unfortunately I’m still trying to figure out what that looks like. I do know, though, that I want to figure out how to boldly go where I’ve never been before with grace pushing me forward.

How do you actively experience God’s grace on a daily basis?

Dancing with my mom.

Yesterday we celebrated Mother’s Day. Mother’s Day can be a day of celebration but it can also be difficult for those who’ve lost their mothers or never had the opportunity to be mothers. We do all share the common bond of having mothers, though, unless we’re in the Matrix and we’re actually all living in tubes. Trusting that we haven’t been turned into batteries, we all have had a mother at some point and some are better than others.

Here are some of the best and worst biblical mothers.

The Best

Mary

Obviously number one with a bullet would be the mother of Jesus. God himself chose her to be the mother for his Son. She really had found favor with God. There isn’t a lot in the Bible about Mary. She was young when she got pregnant, she was a faithful Jew and she stood by her son until the end. And, considering what that end was, Mary must have done something right.

Hannah

Hannah was the mother of the prophet, Samuel. She and her husband couldn’t conceive a child. Hannah made a deal with God: if she got pregnant she would dedicate her child to the Lord. She and her husband conceived, Samuel was born and she took him to Eli, the priest. Hannah was a great mom because she wanted to make sure her son’s life was full of purpose. Also, “Hannah” is a palindrome.

Lois and Eunice

Lois and Eunice were Timothy’s grandmother and mother, respectively. Paul mentions the sincere faith of Lois and Eunice and how they passed it on to Timothy. I love my mother for many reasons but I most appreciate the faith she passed on to me. She and my father gave me the firm foundation with Christ upon which my life entire life is built. Paul never wrote about my mom but I still really like her.

The Worst

Rebekah

I’ve worked with students for a long time and it’s important not to play favorites. Sometimes it happens, though. When it does happen, it’s important not to let the students know there are favorites. I imagine this is also important with parenting. Parents aren’t supposed to have favorites but Rebekah apparently never heard that. Jacob was her favorite and she let him and everyone else know it. That favoritism led Rebekah to encourage Jacob to lie to his father and steal his brother’s birthright. Her unabashed favoritism also tore their family apart. Rebekah’s mothering definitely earned her the grocery store flowers, not the 1-800-FLOWERS flowers.

Athaliah

Athaliah’s story is like the end of The Godfather. Her son Ahaziah, the king of Judah, was killed. In order to consolidate her power, she had everyone else in the royal family killed. Athaliah’s grandson, Joash, escaped the bloodbath and went into hiding. For six years Athaliah ruled as queen until the priests staged a coup and restored Joash to the throne. I don’t know if Athaliah was a bad mother; she loved her son. She definitely was a bad grandmother, though, since she tried to kill Joash. The worst thing my grandparents did was buy me sweaters for Christmas. Joash had it a lot worse.

The Prostitute

King Solomon asked God for wisdom and God responded. One of the stories that best exemplifies Solomon’s wisdom is his ruling between the two prostitutes. Both prostitutes had children. One of the children died and his mother swapped her dead child with the one who was still alive. Solomon ruled that the living child should be cut in two and split between the two prostitutes. The child’s mother said to save the child while the other woman would have seen the child killed. That’s a bad mom. Not only did her child die because she accidentally laid on him but she was happy to see another child killed. That’s not even grocery store flowers, that’s dandelions picked from the lawn.

I can’t even imagine how difficult it is to be a mother. I’m very thankful for my mother and all of the other women who have influenced my life, mothers or not. Thankfully there are some good biblical examples for mothers to follow and some bad examples to avoid.

What other biblical mothers can you think of? What examples did they set?