CHURCH of the NEBULAS SPIRIT
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Sunday, February 29, 2004
This Weeks Sermon: Art Imitating Life? Or Life Imitating Art?
I was sitting in the bank the other day, waiting for paperwork to be drawn up with regards to a house purchase. That’s quite a “spiritual moment” on its own, but in this case, the drawing up of paperwork has nothing to do with the sermon, it is the waiting part that is the basis for the words this week.
So during my wait I was trying to figure out something to do… anything to do. I was completely bored, and I’d read all the book I’d brought, so I had nothing. That’s when I started looking around and saw these paintings on the walls. They were landscape paintings, very “real” looking and very not like most “real looking” landscape paintings.
Let me try to explain. Most real looking landscape paintings are done with tidy strokes, and the artist doing his or her best to capture a photographic quality in the scene. You know, the ripple on the water, the breeze in the trees, the dappled shadows through the branches… that sort of thing. This artist did not even attempt to do that, but I wouldn’t have even come close to classifying this as any sort of modern art… no it was just landscape art, very realistic landscape art. In this case the artist had used broad strokes, with varying sizes of brush. One of the big rock face formations looked like it had been done with a house painting brush. The strokes weren’t smoothed out, and the washed out sun was leaving odd shadows on the rock face of the painting. The trees looked almost like they were floating above the desert landscape. Everything looked sunburned and faded. The land looked tired. It looked real but at the same time you could tell it was very fake. It was art. It made me wonder about life and art. I mean, is life imitating art, or is art imitating life? Is it one way or the other without a shadow of a doubt. These paintings were portraying a realistic setting. The sun looked like the sun looks most days when it’s so hot there are heat waves coming off the ground and it is hard to breathe. The trees looked exactly as they would if you were driving along the highway looking out across the desert… slightly detached… slightly twisted… almost as if they were floating… washed out… hot and trying to live through the sunlit hours. The rock face looked colorful with bands of red and purple and yellowish rock all across it’s length and at the same time like you were looking through a layer of burned sunlight… glazed into being… stuck in reality… shadows frozen in the temperatures that would make a kiln look like an air conditioned haven. It was real life in the desert. It was art… or was it life? These sanely twisted images that the artist conjured from his or her imagination showed life through landscape scenes more clearly than any photographic replica shot ever could. They showed a twisted world of heat, and shadows, or life trying to stay alive and not give in. Is life imitating this art? Did the artist draw this and suddenly that is what the world became? Or did the artist drive through the same patch of road I drove through, see the same thing, and instead of trying to do the tidy brush strokes and create a photograph decide to make the art true, and imitate life?
This whole thought process lead to more things… life and art, art and life… does it matter? What’s it all mean anyway? Is life as twisted as those paintings showed it to be? Is that art just imitating what it is and all the other art fake happy representations of reality? Is that art imitating life? Could be…
On the other hand… is that life imitating art? Is god just some big artist, and we’re some world where people are looking at the girl in the bank looking at the art on the wall thinking that they’re looking at a familiar scene and wondering if that is art imitating life? Or life imitating art?
Which is it?
A little food for thought..
Thought it might help take your mind off the Vegemite!!
AMEN
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the word was delivered at:
.........................I was sitting in the bank the other day, waiting for paperwork to be drawn up with regards to a house purchase. That’s quite a “spiritual moment” on its own, but in this case, the drawing up of paperwork has nothing to do with the sermon, it is the waiting part that is the basis for the words this week.
So during my wait I was trying to figure out something to do… anything to do. I was completely bored, and I’d read all the book I’d brought, so I had nothing. That’s when I started looking around and saw these paintings on the walls. They were landscape paintings, very “real” looking and very not like most “real looking” landscape paintings.
Let me try to explain. Most real looking landscape paintings are done with tidy strokes, and the artist doing his or her best to capture a photographic quality in the scene. You know, the ripple on the water, the breeze in the trees, the dappled shadows through the branches… that sort of thing. This artist did not even attempt to do that, but I wouldn’t have even come close to classifying this as any sort of modern art… no it was just landscape art, very realistic landscape art. In this case the artist had used broad strokes, with varying sizes of brush. One of the big rock face formations looked like it had been done with a house painting brush. The strokes weren’t smoothed out, and the washed out sun was leaving odd shadows on the rock face of the painting. The trees looked almost like they were floating above the desert landscape. Everything looked sunburned and faded. The land looked tired. It looked real but at the same time you could tell it was very fake. It was art. It made me wonder about life and art. I mean, is life imitating art, or is art imitating life? Is it one way or the other without a shadow of a doubt. These paintings were portraying a realistic setting. The sun looked like the sun looks most days when it’s so hot there are heat waves coming off the ground and it is hard to breathe. The trees looked exactly as they would if you were driving along the highway looking out across the desert… slightly detached… slightly twisted… almost as if they were floating… washed out… hot and trying to live through the sunlit hours. The rock face looked colorful with bands of red and purple and yellowish rock all across it’s length and at the same time like you were looking through a layer of burned sunlight… glazed into being… stuck in reality… shadows frozen in the temperatures that would make a kiln look like an air conditioned haven. It was real life in the desert. It was art… or was it life? These sanely twisted images that the artist conjured from his or her imagination showed life through landscape scenes more clearly than any photographic replica shot ever could. They showed a twisted world of heat, and shadows, or life trying to stay alive and not give in. Is life imitating this art? Did the artist draw this and suddenly that is what the world became? Or did the artist drive through the same patch of road I drove through, see the same thing, and instead of trying to do the tidy brush strokes and create a photograph decide to make the art true, and imitate life?
This whole thought process lead to more things… life and art, art and life… does it matter? What’s it all mean anyway? Is life as twisted as those paintings showed it to be? Is that art just imitating what it is and all the other art fake happy representations of reality? Is that art imitating life? Could be…
On the other hand… is that life imitating art? Is god just some big artist, and we’re some world where people are looking at the girl in the bank looking at the art on the wall thinking that they’re looking at a familiar scene and wondering if that is art imitating life? Or life imitating art?
Which is it?
A little food for thought..
Thought it might help take your mind off the Vegemite!!
AMEN
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the word was delivered at:
Sunday, February 22, 2004
Today’s Sermon: All Good Things Must Come To An End… But Not On My Watch!
In the past few weeks I’ve been having some heartfelt discussions with Sister Jo-mamma and we realized that the Third Church was getting a bit run down, and that the pulpit could use a bit of face lift of sorts… as I said “spiritual remodeling” is truly the case. Now it is true that good things must eventually, someday, come to an end. But not on my watch, not when Sister AniD2 is around! There’s an old saying that goes “If you love something let it go blah blah blah… the blah blah blah part isn’t important, and I can’t remember it all anyway… now for this getaway period Sister Jo-mamma had to make the decision to “let it go,” not completely mind you, but enough so that she can get things sorted. We discussed it and decided that to let you wonderful parishioners go out there to the world unknown and try to fend for yourselves would be cruel and unusual punishment… you don’t know just what you might find out there. Hell, WE don’t know WHAT you might find out there. So we can’t have that of course, wouldn’t want to corrupt your minds or anything. That’s when the Bible school came up… It’s just a fact that the wise words of Sister Jo-ma and all the other apostles and prophets of the church must not end up as cyber-dust blowing in the cyber-wind. Sister Jo-ma loved it enough to let it go and see who picks it up to run with it. Now it just happens to be our turn in the land of Oz. Any additional guest sermons are welcome as well, just because it’s bible school doesn’t mean it’s a holiday from responsibility! Or is it??? Who knows? I just want to leave you with one other thought…a question really. Is there anything you enjoy, love, care about, like (any of those words) enough to pick it up and run with it? Anything you just couldn’t stand seeing turn to dust and end? If so, don’t let it happen, if it’s worth it keep it alive… before it is too late and it’s gone to far to the "dark side”.
Be sure to try the new Sunday morning breakfast menu, and spread the vegemite very thin so it doesn’t kill you.
AMEN!
(0) The Signup Sheet
the word was delivered at:
.........................In the past few weeks I’ve been having some heartfelt discussions with Sister Jo-mamma and we realized that the Third Church was getting a bit run down, and that the pulpit could use a bit of face lift of sorts… as I said “spiritual remodeling” is truly the case. Now it is true that good things must eventually, someday, come to an end. But not on my watch, not when Sister AniD2 is around! There’s an old saying that goes “If you love something let it go blah blah blah… the blah blah blah part isn’t important, and I can’t remember it all anyway… now for this getaway period Sister Jo-mamma had to make the decision to “let it go,” not completely mind you, but enough so that she can get things sorted. We discussed it and decided that to let you wonderful parishioners go out there to the world unknown and try to fend for yourselves would be cruel and unusual punishment… you don’t know just what you might find out there. Hell, WE don’t know WHAT you might find out there. So we can’t have that of course, wouldn’t want to corrupt your minds or anything. That’s when the Bible school came up… It’s just a fact that the wise words of Sister Jo-ma and all the other apostles and prophets of the church must not end up as cyber-dust blowing in the cyber-wind. Sister Jo-ma loved it enough to let it go and see who picks it up to run with it. Now it just happens to be our turn in the land of Oz. Any additional guest sermons are welcome as well, just because it’s bible school doesn’t mean it’s a holiday from responsibility! Or is it??? Who knows? I just want to leave you with one other thought…a question really. Is there anything you enjoy, love, care about, like (any of those words) enough to pick it up and run with it? Anything you just couldn’t stand seeing turn to dust and end? If so, don’t let it happen, if it’s worth it keep it alive… before it is too late and it’s gone to far to the "dark side”.
Be sure to try the new Sunday morning breakfast menu, and spread the vegemite very thin so it doesn’t kill you.
AMEN!
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the word was delivered at:
Sunday, February 15, 2004
Todays Sermon: All Good Things Must Come To An End
I was going to run a sermon sent to me by one of the church's regulars. It was about life after death. And it was actually pretty good. But I decided at the last minute to do the sermon myself. You see I've been thinking a lot lately. More than I really like to. Much more than is mentally or spiritually healthy in fact!
And I've been thinking about something that's been gnawing at me the last couple of months. An uneasiness. An unsettling.
I've been thinking a lot about our crusade into Britain. And how exhilarating it was. And enlightening. I've been thinking also about those two kids I met on the plane a few weeks ago.. Paula & Peter. Extraordinary kids.
And it just got me thinking how there's still a lot I've got to see. And maybe there's still some things that I can do.
It's a big world out there people. A great big beautiful fucked up world. And dammit I believe it's calling to me.
And so I figured I'd go and see what it wants.
It's what my heart wants to do. And what those voices in my head want to do. And it's what I want to do too.
I love you all and consider everyone of you an immediate family member. Hell.. I'd put you all in my will if I had one.
But I must take my leave.
Now this won't be immediately . It may not be for several more weeks. There are still some details to be ironed out. I don't plan to be gone forever you know. But then of course you don't know now do you. I mean.. no one ever does.
Still I'll be keeping in touch. I'll be sending sermons reflecting my thoughts and observations as I wander the world..
Or maybe postcards.
(0) The Signup Sheet
the word was delivered at:
.........................I was going to run a sermon sent to me by one of the church's regulars. It was about life after death. And it was actually pretty good. But I decided at the last minute to do the sermon myself. You see I've been thinking a lot lately. More than I really like to. Much more than is mentally or spiritually healthy in fact!
And I've been thinking about something that's been gnawing at me the last couple of months. An uneasiness. An unsettling.
I've been thinking a lot about our crusade into Britain. And how exhilarating it was. And enlightening. I've been thinking also about those two kids I met on the plane a few weeks ago.. Paula & Peter. Extraordinary kids.
And it just got me thinking how there's still a lot I've got to see. And maybe there's still some things that I can do.
It's a big world out there people. A great big beautiful fucked up world. And dammit I believe it's calling to me.
And so I figured I'd go and see what it wants.
It's what my heart wants to do. And what those voices in my head want to do. And it's what I want to do too.
I love you all and consider everyone of you an immediate family member. Hell.. I'd put you all in my will if I had one.
But I must take my leave.
Now this won't be immediately . It may not be for several more weeks. There are still some details to be ironed out. I don't plan to be gone forever you know. But then of course you don't know now do you. I mean.. no one ever does.
Still I'll be keeping in touch. I'll be sending sermons reflecting my thoughts and observations as I wander the world..
Or maybe postcards.
(0) The Signup Sheet
the word was delivered at:
Sunday, February 08, 2004
This Sunday's sermon is being delivered by the 3rd Churches good friend Sister AniD2. And I can't thank her enough. You see the dog ate my sermon. You know how dogs eat imporatant papers all the time. One of those mysteries of life I guess. Anyway.. if the Sister hadn't of offered her spur of the moment yet incredibly inspired gospel.. well it woulda been an unfulfilling Sunday to say the least. So without further stalling I am proud to bring on the one and only Sister AniD2 and her rather aptly titled preaching...
Today's Sermon: Good Things Come To Those Who Wait
By Sister AniD2
As you've all come to know I'm the Sister with the menacing attitude. Yep that's me Sister AniD2, but what I have today is in a much lighter vein. It's all about patience!
Sometimes it seems like life is bound and determined to throw shit at you. No matter where you go and no matter what you do there's always this little twist and turn that causes you to take the big nose dive right in the smoking brown pile… that's when you feel like giving up and giving in, but you can't let that happen to you! Things eventually, even if it does seem like forever, will take a turn for the better and the sun will come out…
remember that little red headed brat and that song "The Sun'll come out…" Yeah, that's the one, that's it, and you've got it. It will come out tomorrow, and you don't even have to listen to her to know it or believe it! I'm telling you about it right here in the place we all come to rest and relax after a long week at work…. That place we turn to see what's cooking for Sunday morning breakfast and what's on the TV for the weekend, and to talk to friends and family and get a few wise words from Sister Jo-ma and the rest of us unlikely apostles who are spreading the Third Church religion around the world to the masses… IT WILL GET BETTER. If you're lucky it might even kick a little ass and take a little names in the long run!
So I suppose that the moral of this sermon is to be patient! Now, get back in there and wade through that crap to get to the good stuff! You just gotta have faith! Remember that saying that your mom or dad or grandma used to say to you, or are still saying or that saying you tell your kids when they get impatient… Good things come to those who wait!
Now don't forget to have a nice relaxing breakfast, try the new spicy smoked sausages!
Amen!
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the word was delivered at:
.........................Today's Sermon: Good Things Come To Those Who Wait
By Sister AniD2
As you've all come to know I'm the Sister with the menacing attitude. Yep that's me Sister AniD2, but what I have today is in a much lighter vein. It's all about patience!
Sometimes it seems like life is bound and determined to throw shit at you. No matter where you go and no matter what you do there's always this little twist and turn that causes you to take the big nose dive right in the smoking brown pile… that's when you feel like giving up and giving in, but you can't let that happen to you! Things eventually, even if it does seem like forever, will take a turn for the better and the sun will come out…
remember that little red headed brat and that song "The Sun'll come out…" Yeah, that's the one, that's it, and you've got it. It will come out tomorrow, and you don't even have to listen to her to know it or believe it! I'm telling you about it right here in the place we all come to rest and relax after a long week at work…. That place we turn to see what's cooking for Sunday morning breakfast and what's on the TV for the weekend, and to talk to friends and family and get a few wise words from Sister Jo-ma and the rest of us unlikely apostles who are spreading the Third Church religion around the world to the masses… IT WILL GET BETTER. If you're lucky it might even kick a little ass and take a little names in the long run!
So I suppose that the moral of this sermon is to be patient! Now, get back in there and wade through that crap to get to the good stuff! You just gotta have faith! Remember that saying that your mom or dad or grandma used to say to you, or are still saying or that saying you tell your kids when they get impatient… Good things come to those who wait!
Now don't forget to have a nice relaxing breakfast, try the new spicy smoked sausages!
Amen!
(0) The Signup Sheet
the word was delivered at:
Sunday, February 01, 2004
The Reason For The Season
Good glorious morning to you all. We will be starting our worship this Superbowl Sunday with one of my favorite Superbowl carols… sung by our special guest choir. Ladies and gents the Third Church presents The Water Boys and their lovely rendition of The Reason For The Season (I believe you'll need Real Audio)
Well I sure hope you all were able to hear that because it beautifully explains the spirit and the glory of football season. Those glorious 16 weeks that lead to this most sacred of Sundays. Superbowl!!
Now I know everyone is anxious to get home.. I mean hell I love Superbowl as much as anyone else.. The tapping of the family kegger. The wearing of team colors. The betting and swearing. The whole world smells like Buffalo wings and nachos. My god.. what's not to love??
But before I let you all go. Before you get all liquored up.. I'd like you to take a moment to remember the less fortunate. The less festive. Those like.. The Philadelphia Eagles and the Green Bay Packers. And ohhh those San Francisco 49ers. Lord have mercy! You'll get em next year guys!
OK.. just 2 quick announcements and then we're outa here!
All those on the Church's Super Sunday Football pool can pick up a copy of their numbers on their way out. And remember no pay.. no play. So I hope everyone is paid up.
Oh and don't forget the pre-game tailgate party out behind the Boob Tube Bar.
OK folks.. I'd like to bring the Water Boys back out to flush us outa here with song.
Happy Super Sunday everyone!!
(0) The Signup Sheet
the word was delivered at:
.........................Good glorious morning to you all. We will be starting our worship this Superbowl Sunday with one of my favorite Superbowl carols… sung by our special guest choir. Ladies and gents the Third Church presents The Water Boys and their lovely rendition of The Reason For The Season (I believe you'll need Real Audio)
Well I sure hope you all were able to hear that because it beautifully explains the spirit and the glory of football season. Those glorious 16 weeks that lead to this most sacred of Sundays. Superbowl!!
Now I know everyone is anxious to get home.. I mean hell I love Superbowl as much as anyone else.. The tapping of the family kegger. The wearing of team colors. The betting and swearing. The whole world smells like Buffalo wings and nachos. My god.. what's not to love??
But before I let you all go. Before you get all liquored up.. I'd like you to take a moment to remember the less fortunate. The less festive. Those like.. The Philadelphia Eagles and the Green Bay Packers. And ohhh those San Francisco 49ers. Lord have mercy! You'll get em next year guys!
OK.. just 2 quick announcements and then we're outa here!
All those on the Church's Super Sunday Football pool can pick up a copy of their numbers on their way out. And remember no pay.. no play. So I hope everyone is paid up.
Oh and don't forget the pre-game tailgate party out behind the Boob Tube Bar.
OK folks.. I'd like to bring the Water Boys back out to flush us outa here with song.
Happy Super Sunday everyone!!
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the word was delivered at:
