Month: May 2019

Today Noah graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire Cum Laude with his Bachelor’s Degree. Now he prepares for new adventures. I am very proud of him and so is Pam. He is one really cool young man.

This past weekend Adam, the oldest son, and I went to the Uptown Landmark Theater in Minneapolis to see the Black & Chrome edition of Mad Max: Fury Road. I have seen Fury Road at least three times before but there was something about watching it at the Landmark that helped me to see elements that I hadn’t seen before. Maybe it was the Black & Chrome version of the film (it was seriously awesome in black & white) or maybe it was seeing it on the big screen for the first time that helped me to see these elements (wow the chase scenes were incredible on the big screen). I’m not sure which. What I know is that the movie went from being a movie that I like to being a movie that I love. One of the things that I loved about the movie was its redemptive aspect. This really stood out as Adam and I watched it. I hadn’t noticed before how much of the story was about redemption.

At the moment Pam and I are watching PBS’s version of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. If you have ever read the book, watched this wonderful version of Hugo’s book, or watched the musical adaptation of the book then you know this too is a story of redemption. It is such a good book.

There are redemption stores all around us. We are desperate for them.

Unfortunately often in the church we become fascinated with holiness stories. Actually outside of the church we do the same thing, we just don’t call it holiness. Instead outside the church we just focus on people’s faults, rather than calling them sin, and specifically the faults that aren’t like ours (because our faults aren’t really that bad, are they?). So both in the church and outside of the church we often focus on telling people to follow the social norms, the law, the unspoken customs, or doing the proper religious actions. When people don’t do those we jump in, call them out, and revel in the fact that we are briefly “better” than whoever we just called out. Pointing out someone else’s sin or fault give us a brief, perverse feeling of superiority.

Holiness is good, please don’t think I am saying otherwise. It just isn’t the center of Christianity. Redemption, specifically redemption through the death and life of Jesus, is the center of Christianity. God is holy and a part of His holiness is that He consistently redeems those who He has called to be holy but who unfortunately haven’t been able to be holy like He is holy (Leviticus 11:44). All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), BUT God so loves us that He gave His only begotten Son that we might not perish for our lack of holiness (John 3:16). To be a follower of Christ is to be someone who claims the ultimate redemption story. In a world that loves to tell redemption stories in our media (books, film, music, etc) but doesn’t actually want to allow for the sacrificial forgiveness of redemption in real life (what do you mean that I am supposed to love the one who hurt me?) we followers of Jesus need to be the people who actually believe in and practice real redemption.

Real redemption is costly. Real redemption is difficult. Real redemption is messy. Real redemption is beautiful. Real redemption is what the world longs for and what we in the church have through Jesus.

In one of the ongoing message threads that Pam and I have with the boys, the incredible woman whom I love once again proved that she knows me. Here’s what she sent.

And here is the actual tweet/video that she was referencing.

PhD folks…keep this video handy pic.twitter.com/RymO23e57C

— Prof Richard Johnston (@DrRichJohnston) May 9, 2019

You see I have a bit of a problem with Medical Doctors co-opting the title Doctor. 1st being a minister and understanding where the title “doctor” came from (i.e. “doctor of the church”) will do that to you, and 2nd being a workman’s compensation adjuster at one point in your life also has a tendency to do that to you (MD: “I am a person of science!” Me: “Nope your a technician who basically just wrote the report that I asked you to write.”)

I have great respect for Medical Doctors and I trust their advice when it comes to medicine. I don’t go down the whole “I don’t trust traditional medicine” route. I trust the experts. I am just not a fan of how the term “Doctor” has come to mean “Physician”. That isn’t what it actually means and it shouldn’t be the generally understood meaning (don’t go down the route of language being socially constructed – you’ll interrupt my rant 🙂 ).

I’m not much on titles but if you are going to expect people to refer to you with your co-opted title outside of your professional setting (I understand the need for the title in the hospital setting) then you should do the same for others who have earned their doctorates. When you greet my highly-intelligent PhD Professor wife you should either acknowledge that you will be on a first named basis with her or refer to her with the honorific of either “Doctor” or “Professor”. While we are at it I prefer that people call me by my first name but if you are going to be picky then the name is Reverend Doctor Terrell, thank you very much. Realistically just use my first name and I will use yours.

I do tend to get a little worked up over this. Anyhow Brooklyn 99 is awesome!

In my opinion if you are a Star Wars fan you should watch this reimagining of the fight between Obi Wan and Darth Vader in Episode IV: A New Hope. It is wonderful.

As the oldest boy child pointed out this Vader connects so much better with the Vader of rage and power shown at the end of Rogue One.