I just read a comparison by my old friend, Phil. He said,

I am seeing more and more similarities between the clergy and medicine. Both are truly priesthoods. No other professions deal as intimately with life and death in the human experience. No one else is given the job of explaining the nature of life and death, even if it’s a bit mechanistic nowadays.

Now, Phil’s going to be a doctor one day, and he appropriately furthered the thought in the direction of medicine. And he made a good point. But my mind wandered off in the other direction, thinking about the clergy side (Not that I’m entertaining thoughts of entering ‘the ministry’).

I’ve never known someone that was excommunicated from the church. At least, I don’t think I have. I’ve definitely never known someone before and after they were excommunicated. No one’s ever been excommunicated from a congregation that I’ve been a part of – not while I was there, at least. My pastor has counseled individuals from other churches that were eventually excommunicated, but I never knew them. The closest I’ve ever been to someone that was excommunicated, actually, is via blogging.

Excommunication is being cut off from Christ; from life itself. It is death. And these matters pass through the hands of the leaders of the church. How can anyone bear such responsibility? It seems so daunting. And heartwrenching. They’re just men, but life and death are in their hands. Not ultimately, of course. But in a similar sense that physical life and death are in the hands of our physicians, spiritual life and death are in the hands of our elders.

I have known someone that died, physically. My mother died a few years ago. It hurt. But I can only imagine that the pain of seeing a loved one die spiritually is far more severe.

it must hurt exponentially more for someone to die spiritually.

Thoughts on the Matrix trilogy…

I agree with Steven Greydanus, who sums it up neatly and accurately by saying,

The original Matrix thus remains the most worthwhile, for it represents a stage in the story’s development when anything was possible and everything was interesting. The sequels merely squander the first film’s potential and erode what made it an evocative, interesting film.

Here’s the sermon from Sunday.

Sorry about the static sound that occurs periodically. I’m not sure what it is. I think I need a new mic.