Into Darkness with Miracle Max

I have just returned from the watching the latest Star Trek film.  Into Darkness is a good movie.  Great effects, great script, excellent acting (for the most part), an extraordinary villain.  But…  it remains only a good movie.  It was nearly great.  Really.  I loved it up until the end. 

If you haven’t seen it yet and you don’t want spoilers you’ll have to stop here.

If he’s dead, let him be dead.  Let his death be.  Let his death mean.  That’s what made Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan so effective; Spock’s death was real.  His death was powerful because he was dead. Stunningly dead.  William Shatner’s finest moment ever as an actor was in delivering Spock’s funeral eulogy when his voice hitched up on the word “human.”   Spock’s death was powerful and gripping because his death had consequences.

And yes, we all know that movie dead isn’t exactly the same as real life dead.  Sequels are great for undoing and redoing things like that.  But still, if he’s dead, let him be dead.  Let us have our catharsis and our grief – at least until the next film in the series.  

But, even in death, Kirk can’t accept consequences.  He’s only “barely dead” for a few minutes before he’s back, as good as ever.  It’s too easy.  Too glib.  Kirk’s death was meaningless.

Into Darkness telegraphed its ending well ahead of the climax.  As soon I saw the scene with Dr. McCoy injecting the dead tribble with Khan’s blood to discover why it rejuvenates, I knew that someone would die at the end and that that death would be “miraculously” undone by the application of Khan’s super-blood. 

Suddenly Kirk was only “mostly dead” and Dr. McCoy had become Miracle Max.

18 Rabbit and 42 Apes

This is 18 Rabbit, or, as he’s known in Honduras, Uaxaclajuun Ub'aah K'awiil.  He was the 13th ruler of the Mayan Empire. (at least I think it is.  I’m not entirely confident of my Mayan royalty…) A friend of mine brought this back for me from Honduras.

18 Rabbit makes me a little bit nostalgic – not for Honduras, as I’ve never been there, and not for the Mayans as I’ve never met any.  But nostalgic for those days when my boy was younger.  When he was little he had not one imaginary friend, but a whole cast of imaginary friends, one of whom was 42 Apes.  42 Apes eventually had an imaginary friend himself, known as 192 Apes. 

I miss that little guy and his imaginary friends.

The Day of the Lord

Scattered from the tower
in the midst of the city that we conspired to build,
splintered and fragmented
by languages we could not and would not share,
we lived our separate lives
anxiously watching for that terrible day
when the sun would turn black
and the sky would dissolve.

But regathered now
in the midst of the city in that dark upper room
when the fires of God burned over our heads
and the noise of a wind echoed all around;
together we realize that
the great and awful day that we feared
is a day to make us whole,
to make us well, to make us one.

Acts 2: 1 – 21

Investigation Into These Matters Will Continue

They sunk the mines – copper mines – deep into the earth, tunneling through the layers of rock, down, down, down, deeper into the darkness until they struck water.  Cold dark water flowing for billions of years beneath the planet’s surface.  Take a drink of this water.  Taste the rich dissolved gases – hydrogen and methane.  This is the water of life.

10,000 years ago our ancestors were developing language skills and crushing the skulls of their dearly departed dead in order to protect the living.  They feared the rise of zombies as much as we do.

The horror of Dunwich was lost under rising murky waters.  Its buildings eroded and crumbled sank beneath those undrinkable waters.  And should have remained sunken so.  But recently a team of archaeologists from the Miskatonic University have begun using special sonar devices to probe these forgotten mysteries.  Some things should remain lost.

A report was brought to the city council of a trans-dimensional disturbance on a residential street in the German quarter.  A member of the public described it as “a worm-hole or a vortex, like water going down a drain, but it was in the air, you know…”  Thirty or forty golden colored snakes came through before the vortex was closed, but have not yet been captured by Animal Control Services.

Meanwhile residents of the village continue to report low-flying aircraft circling the village limits just after dusk.  Police helicopters launched to investigate have been unable to verify these reports.  But there remains the matter of the lingering contrails that encircle the village every morning.

Is this the work of some sort of alien craft?  Is this interstellar harassment, or is it, as one local authority suggests, an all but extinct species of enormous hawks circling their prey?  When will the governing authorities do something to protect us from these malicious forces?  People are really scared and the council’s repeated assurances that “the investigation into these matters will continue,” isn’t helping. 

We demand action.

In This Light

I was asked by my Divisional Commander to write a short paragraph on John 1: 14.  I don't know if this was what he wanted or expected, but this is what he received.

In This Light

The word, unspoken in the time before time,
in the place before space,
the word that was with God and was God,
when spoken
called forth light,

and in that light, all that exists,
all that can be seen (and all that cannot)
came to be.

And this spoken word,
this word of power,
this word of God,
became fragile flesh, put on frailty
that he might live with us and as us
and that he might speak to us
to bring us into the light.

In this light
we have seen the word that was spoken before time,
in this light we have seen the face of one who can’t be seen.

We have seen the glory the glory that would burn out incautious eyes
the glory that would blind,
in him we have seen the one and only.

A Reminder - The Carnival is Coming

The Carnival is coming. With music, and lights, and shows, and freaks, and rides, and thrills, and food, and fun.  It's the traveling Biblioblog Carnival and it will be here June 1st with a collection of the greatest, and most interesting blog posts, essays, and videos in the field of biblical studies posted during the month of May.

There's still time to submit and to suggest articles that you've discovered or that you've written.  You can send them to me in the comments section below or via my email - thatjeffcarterwashere[at]hotmail[dot]com. 

You should also be aware that Jim West will be hosting a separatist and heretical Avignon Carnival. But if you want the real carnival, the, if you will, "Roman" carnival, it will be here June 1st.

The Hermit

He knew that he was becoming
a compulsive recluse,
a hermetically sealed hermit,
as the others were arguing semantics
before the diagnosis,
and he was quite content with this.

Pentecost Worship Ideas and Bonus Free Background Image

This is something that I've done off and on for Pentecost Sundays in the past several years.  I tape red, yellow, and orange (this year orange, yellow, and pink) streamers to a fan.  Thus you have both the sound of the rushing wind and the tongues of fire.




























And - BONUS - here is an additional free background image for use in Powerpoint (or similar presentation program) for Pentecost.  You're free to download it and to use it in your own projects at home, work, school, or church.  I only ask that you share it freely and that you tell others that you found it here.

Artificial Saints - Saint Albedo

Not much is known about the life of St. Albedo.  The where and when of his birth have been lost to shadows of history – a fitting fate for one remembered for his desire that others should see only Christ in his life.  He has been adopted as the patron saint of mirror makers.

The Prayer of St. Albedo

Almighty God, light of the world, who has illuminated the world through the glory of your son, Jesus, shine forth and allow me to be a pure reflection of your effulgence so that others may be brought from darkness to light, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Thatjeffcarter was here

Maybe you wondered what thatjeffcarter looks like.  Maybe you couldn't care less.  I don't know.