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20+ years since I started preaching, I am constructing any portfolio to be recognised as a local preacher in the Methodist Church.
One item asks questions about how we talk about "salvation", and as a result I found myself digging out the dissertation I wrote for my BA Hons. in 2010! I haven't re-read it all the way through in a very long time, but am "self-referencing" in the portfolio piece, so want to make sure it's somewhere accessible for those assessing the portfolio to read! But the real question is: Would I write the same thing again? Or rather “The Manger Gift Hypothesis”: What do you See? How do you respond?
This is my go-to Christmas message for new groups of people... ____ I love Christmas. The excitement has been building, the traditions are all rolled out of the box, and it’s time for us to watch those classic seasonal films and eat the food that we only ever consider at Christmas... I mean, when else can you justify watching the Muppets Christmas Carol and eating turkey and brussel sprouts (neither of which any of us really like if we’re being honest...)! And then there are the Christmas specials that come on the TV, both the classics that we’ve loved and watched for years, and the latest seasonal offering produced by our current favourite shows. My favourite all-time Christmas episode of a TV series has to be, without a shadow of a doubt the Christmas episode of the Big Bang Theory, Episode 11 from Season 2. For those who are unfamiliar with the show and the characters, the story revolves around a group of geeky male scientists (well, 3 scientists and an engineer) who are ridiculously intelligent yet socially clueless and inept, and their socially gifted yet intellectually inferior female friend Penny. Invariably the episodes revolve around Penny trying to impart useful social practices and common sense to one of more of the men who just don’t get it. Sheldon is the most socially inept of the 4 friends, and in this clip he is struggling with the concept of gift-giving. In this episode, titled “The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis”, Penny tells Sheldon that she has a gift for him for Christmas and Sheldon, though he despises the concept of giving and receiving gifts, knows that the right thing to do is reciprocate the gift with something of equal value, but how does he do that when he doesn’t know what the gift is? And so, he comes up with the “Bath Item Gift Hypothesis,” which is explained, and undone, during this clip. One last thing you should probably know before we watch: Sheldon doesn’t do physical contact. The wife and I have been re-watching Chuck of late, and we've just started the last disc of the last season.
If you've not watched it, you should. Simple, funny, entertaining, nerdy and clever. The premise revolves around the intersect, a super computer that is capable of being uploaded into the human brain. It bestows the person who downloads it with secret knowledge and information from the combined databases of the CIA and NSA. Later updates enable the bearer to know martial arts, gun mastery, languages and other random skills. It's been a while since I wrote my Honours dissertation, and nearly as long since I read it, but from memory, I'm still committed to the baseline principle:
We all watch things, and we all need to be able to understand what we're watching. |
MARCRemarcable is one man blogging about Youth Work, Theology, Family, Life and those other random things that come to mind. Archives
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