Just a note that I'm (obviously) running behind on updating video. Sunday's been a day devoted to upgrading a fellow-blogger's site. Original plan was to update the code, start some design work on his and maybe use my site as a guinea pig for some ideas. Turns out that the coding side of that's proven to be more of a challenge. So the day's pretty much been spent on that and looking at the bright, shiny sunlight outside of my window is a huge temptation (and something I'll likely not see much of for the day ;-)

Anyways, here's what you have to look forward to. Stephan Jackson belting out more tunage and Aimee Beard being her usual great self with a microphone. We also had a repeat of The Mighty Mighty Josh-tones up at Koinonia and I'd be downright negligent in my blogging duties to NOT review what a great job they did.

One point worth delving into for the time being, though. If there's one aspect of most evangelical churches that raises a question or two out of me, it's how we treat patriotic holidays. So there's a few weekends where a part of me feels a bit reluctant to even bother heading to church (a small part, but a part nonetheless). Aimee does an absolutely beautiful version of "God Bless America," for instance. But is that a song that should really be sung in church? I don't pretend to have a conclusive case one way or the other. But it's a question that should be asked. Since I run video for Koinonia, that usually means occasionally playing some patriotic-themed video or image as part of the presentation. That didn't change this year. Neither did the questions that I think we should all ask of ourselves about which is more important: God or patriotism to our country.

Now, I'm certainly among those with more than a little kinship for the good ol' U. S. of A. My family's namesake is represented on the Declaration of Independence. And even though my neighborhood might not rank in the Top Ten safest in the US, it's still a far better place to reside than some war-torn corner of the world that better-dressed folks have forgotten to care for, or written off as hopelessly war-torn anyway. So there's certainly a huge sense of gratefulness that I have for this land we call home for now and what went into making it what it is today (the good parts, anyway).

It would be easy to write off any nagging questions that a Fourth-themed night would raise about the standard church fare we get, not just at Lakewood, but I suspect a lot of churches. A few minor occurrences that stood out from the night serve as useful reminders that all is not lost, however. One of the singers was slated to sing a patriotic song, and later on would perform as part of our talent & worship gig. Not knowing how to interpret the eventflow, I'm approached to answer whether a couple of lines were to be interpreted as having an American flag backdrop during a song that, from memory, spoke of "Jesus alone" as all we need. Certainly, a rather ironic point if it were to have called for a US flag backdrop (which it wasn't). The funny thing was that it was pointed out that the song "wasn't really patriotic." I'm glad someone at least thought about that.

We had a "poem" reading which turned out to be a reading of one of those urban legend emails, actually. The point basically advocated for others to put up with us Christians as we demanded time for a public prayer at football games. The article comes from a Wichita Falls sportswriter - not Paul Harvey, as was stated. It's edited down for effect. But there's a line in there about how we're "fed up with turning the other cheek." Really? All of us are supposed to be fed up with doing what Jesus tells us to do? I think it'd be a great experiment sometime to have someone who honestly clings to the position stated in this letter to walk into a restaurant and demand that everyone in the restaurant pray with them. And maybe if everyone doesn't want to do this, we can get the government to do it for us. Basically the same thing. And also not how Christ called us to live. I wish that more thought had gone into this one. But I suspect we all occasionally fail to get everything right.

Lastly, I get to the office overnight and I'm done reviewing my recording of the Saturday night service. I need some background music to fill more time, so I start googling for something new to listen to in the way of a sermon or two before napping till sunrise. I pull up the church of a well-known pastor whom I'd never bothered to give a listen to. I knew the odds weren't great that I'd love the sermon, but I was in a mood to hear him out. Turns out he gave his Fourth-themed sermon last week. He started off by pointing out that America wasn't a Christian nation. Thought I might have calculated wrong about the guy and maybe I'd like whatever came next. I was wrong. He basically continued to point out that even though we aren't technically a Christian nation ... we basically are in a functional way. I probably disagreed with about 75% of everything the guy said. Then I had to remind myself of why I stuck with this sermon despite my disagreement with it. Basically, it's this: it could be a lot worse.

And for that, I'm grateful.

Now, if you'll pardon me ... I'm going to schedule some time to roast a single hot dog on a grill in order to celebrate my independence from something (in this case - from the microwave). Video and other bright, dazzling images to come tomorrow.