a glimpse towards Sunday 8.9.13

Duck Dynasty has taken over our household.  I’m now thinking of growing a beard down to my knees.  Michael wants to too.

If you haven’t watched the A&E hit cable TV show, you don’t know what you’re missing.  When I first heard about Duck Dynasty, my suburban cynicism wouldn’t give it the time of day.  On study break, my family decided to check out first hand what the hillbilly hype was all about.   Now we’re hooked.

In fact, I’m in so deep I’m reading Phil Robertson’s new biography called, “Happy, Happy, Happy.”  Phil Robertson is the quiet-but-outspoken patriarch of the Duck Dynasty clan.  He’s a simple man as evidenced in his book.  Robertson writes, “I have a God-given right to pursue happiness, and happiness to me is killing things, skinning them, plucking them, and then having a good meal.  What makes me happy is going out and blowing a duck’s head off.  As it says in Acts 10:13 (KJV), ‘And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat.”

Not much pretense, concern for political correctness, or fear of ASPCA running through them thar Robertson veins.  It’s just simple, living-off-the-land, down-to-earth, uncomplicated, humble living.  Kind of weird… and cool… how Mr. Robertson seems to be unaffected by sudden fame and obvious money.

At one point, Jesus was the central focal point of a huge parade.  The people were excited about Jesus’s kingdom.  They didn’t, however, have much interest in the King — especially the kind Jesus portrayed.  Jesus rode on a donkey; not a majestic war horse.  What was he signaling about the real Kingdom?  What was he telling us, as disciples, about the kind of King he really was?  Is there a splendor of ordinary (as Os Guinness writes about) for us to be challenged with?

On Sunday, we begin working our way through Jesus’s final trek into Jerusalem.  We’ll be studying Mark 1:1-11.  Many call this the “triumphal entry.”  Some say this is a coronation parade.  I’m not sure those ideas capture what’s really going on, and why it all matters to us.  We’ll dig in and explore it all together.

What are your expectations attached to King Jesus?  Have you ever focused more on His Kingdom stuff than the King himself?  Should this donkey riding King shape the way we approach all aspects of our lives?  Let’s gather and talk on Sunday at 9 & 11 a.m.  It will be good to be together.  Bring a friend or two.  I’m anxious to be teaching.

Blessings,

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