Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. [1 Peter 4:8]

I officiated a wedding last weekend. Love was in the air. The husband-to-be insisted that I speak about love as an action. Yes! Authentic marital and Christian love is hard work. I concur and I complied.

And yet that concept of love is foreign to most weddings (and many marriages and people in general). Commonly, love is thought of as an intense and exciting emotional experience. The heart beats faster, our stomach goes all weird on us, there is an accompanying tingling sensations in our bodies, we become temporarily asthmatic 😊, and we think that is how we know we’re in love. Love is a feeling.

But that is never what Christianity meant by love. Neither God’s love (whose very essence is love) nor the Christ-follower’s love (which is why history is strewn with Christian hospitals and orphanages and ministries of mercy). Love is not primarily a feeling we have; it is an action we do. A need we meet. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…”

Weddings often salute that idea when 1 Corinthians 13 is read (“Love is patient, love is kind…”). And indeed, love does cover a multitude of sins. Not because we muster up good feelings to mask someone’s ugly sin nor because we sweep the sins under the carpet and ignore the slight or character flaw in the other. Love covers sins because it calls us to the action of forgiving and even be willing to engage in the hard work of helping that other person become all that God desires for them to be. Now that is the way to say, “I love you.”

At the movies (films I haven’t seen yet, but intend to)
Say what? A horror film from Angel Studios!?

In a somewhat surprising move, the faith-based movie makers are coming out with Sketch, which portrays a family wrestling with grief. The family’s young girl begins drawing scary monsters in her sketchbook. And they eventually come to life. And I guess the “horror” begins.

Angel Studios co-founder Jeffrey Harmon tells of an occasion in his own home during family prayers when his young son asked, “Dad, what does the other side of your eyeballs look like? … Can I pull them out and look at them?” The answer was “No.” But the conversation reminded Harmon that kids have “wild ideas.” And the seed of Sketch was planted. There have been those criticizing Angel Studios for this surprising new genre. Harmon, however, defends the movie and the mission of the studio, saying, “If you think Angel is not going to show demons, or show scary images or scary monsters, we just may not be the home for your movie viewing.”

A Little Prayer
David Strahairn (a fine actor; The Bourne Ultimatum, Goodnight and Good Luck, and Lincoln are among his best movies) plays a father who grapples with how to protect his daughter-in-law when he discovers that his son is having an affair. Awkward family dynamic and scenario. And in the trailer, at least, Strahairn (the father) seems to handle the situation with both grace and openness.

RogerEbert.com says this about the movie: “A Little Prayer has a religious, specifically Christian, dimension that’s woven into the drama rather than superimposed onto it.” This isn’t surprising from a Terrence Malick film, who has subtle, meaningful Christian themes in many of his movies. As film critic David Roark writes, “Malick’s [films] function as cinematic liturgies that paint a distinctly Christian picture of the good life—the kingdom of God—reflecting the gospel story of creation, fall, redemption and restoration.”

Up and the Cleveland Orchestra? Yes!
Next February, the Cleveland Orchestra will do their amazing musical/cinematic magic as they play the soundtrack to Pixar’s Up. Along with listening to the musical performance, the audience will be watching this heart-warming story of 78-year-old widower Carl, who ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies to South America to fulfill a promise to his late wife—and is surprisingly accompanied by Russell, a stowaway little boy, and Dug, a talking dog. If you’ve never experienced the two mediums this way (live soundtrack and film), it’s a real treat! You forget you have real-life world-class musicians in the room with you.

President Trump and Luke 18
By now most of us have heard Trump’s comments about desiring the Nobel Peace Prize and earning his way into heaven. To refresh your memory: Trump told the hosts of Fox and Friends, “I want to try and get to heaven, if possible. I’m hearing I’m not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole.” He said this while discussing his motivations for trying to broker an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

And by now most of us have commented on his statement, from “I knew he didn’t really know the Gospel,” to the New York Times calling the President’s confession “soul-searchingly self-deprecating,” to seeing an opportunity to evangelize Trump (as Christianity Today editor Russell Moore confidently did, not without a few digs of his own).

But the more I thought about it, I couldn’t help but think of the parable Jesus told in Luke 18. It was about a tax collector who also thought he was on “the bottom of the totem pole.” And he comes to pray. Next to him prays a smug, religious fellow with all the correct answers. Proudly wearing his moral superiority, the Pharisee scoffs at the sinner beside him.

How easy it might be for me (and others) to piously testify to Trump’s totem-poll status (pointing to any number of perceived character flaws). And how quickly I would be adorning the garb of the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable: “Thank you, Lord, that I am not like this corrupt, narcissistic president.”

Therein lies the power of Jesus’ words and the Gospel. For you see, when that parable pointed its finger anew at me, I began to squirm. Moi? A Pharisee? And that’s why Jesus taught in parables: to make us wrestle, to shake us up, to make us look in the mirror and question our own smug spiritual arrogance.

The ironic power of the Christian Gospel is that it’s not until someone recognizes their own spiritual poverty (being “at the bottom of the totem pole” or being a “sinner”) that they are on the proper path toward grace and the Kingdom of God. Any smugness concerning the qualifications of a “tax collector” or a bullying president says more about the sad state of my heart than the power of the Gospel.

Giorgio Armani passes away
Sue and I have spent a lot of time in Milan, Italy over the years. I can imagine the sadness and loss that the city feels as their hometown celebrity died last week. The pride for him being one of “us” was not unlike Cleveland with LeBron or Cincinnati with Pete Rose. Sue and I have spoken with employees at his store in Milan, and they always had warm words about their encounters with him when he would visit. Here are some wise words from this successful businessman and legendary designer. (Per usual, I think in the context of leadership, pastors, even churches.)

“My only regret in life was spending too many hours working and not enough time with friends and family.”

“Relevance is a quality that others give to you. One cannot self-crown himself relevant.”

“I don’t know if I would use the word workaholic, but hard work is certainly essential to success.”

“Eighty percent of what I do is discipline. The rest is creativity.”

“Anyone who is passionate about what they do will have a better chance of connecting with future generations than those who simply follow transient trends.”

Prayer of Ambrose (patron saint of Milan)
“O loving Lord Jesus Christ,
I, a sinner, not presuming on my own merits,
but trusting in Your mercy and goodness,
with fear and awe approach the table of Your most sacred banquet.
For I have stained both my heart and body with many sins,
and have not kept a strict guard over my mind and tongue.

“Wherefore, O gracious God, O awful majesty, I, a wretched creature,
entangled in difficulties, have recourse to You, the fount of mercy;
to You I fly for healing and take refuge under Your protection,
and I ardently desire to have Him as my Savior whom I am unable to face as my Judge.
To You, Lord, I show my wounds, to You I lay bare my shame.

“I know that my sins are many and great and on their account I am filled with fear.
But I trust in Your mercy, which is endless.
Look down on me, therefore, with the eyes of mercy, Lord Jesus Christ, eternal King,
God and Man, crucified for men. Hear me, for my hope is in You;
have mercy on me, for I am full of sin and wretchedness,
You who never cease to let flow the fountain of mercy.
Hail Victim of Salvation, offered for me and for all mankind on the tree of the cross.
Hail, noble and precious Blood, flowing from the wounds of my crucified Lord Jesus Christ
washing away the sins of the whole world.

“Remember, Lord, Your creature, whom You have redeemed with Your Blood.
I am grieved because I have sinned. I desire to make amends for what I have done.
Take away from me, therefore, O most merciful Father, all my iniquities and my sins,
that, being purified both in soul and body, I may worthily partake of the Holy of Holies;
and grant that this holy oblation of Your Body and Blood, of which though unworthy I purpose to partake,
may be to me the remission of my sins, the perfect cleansing of all my offenses,
the means of driving away all evil thoughts and of renewing all holy desires,
the accomplishment of works pleasing to You,
as well as the strongest defense for soul and body against the snares of my enemies.
Amen.”