• Forget Barry Bonds' home run Saturday. The real sports event this weekend was BrainyBoy from Inn of the Last Home scoring a goal in the regular season finale of soccer. Congrats to BrainyBoy on this. (Now, Barry, all I can say is--we expect the footage of BrainyBoy scoring his goal to be encoded and made available immediately, if not sooner!)

• Amazingly, I did not run out and see The DaVinci Code this past weekend, despite the media on-slaught telling me I should go see it as it is "the most important movie since the last one that came out." That said, the sermon at church Sunday addressed the movie and the book, but it wasn't what I was expecting at all. A few things that caught my attention (and apologies to Dr. O'Bannon as these come from memory.)

• The DaVinci Code is a fictional book and movie. And while it does take some things from history that sound good and like evidence, Dan Brown takes liberties with the actual facts in order to tell his story. For example, Constantine did not approve what chapters went into and which were excluded from the New Testiment.
• It's not like this kind of hype about something that seems to challenge the Bible is something new. Seems that back in Paul's day, he had to send Timothy to Ephasus to deal with a situation pretty much just like this one and he refers to it in the first letter to Timothy.
• There's a church in Australia that is spending $38,000 to counter the influence of The DaVinci Code. Surely this money would be better spent feeding the hungry, building Habititat for Humanity homes or anything else that builds the Kingdom. Just imagine if the church attacked the real problems in real people's lives with as much furor as they are this movie and book. The mind boggles at what could be accomplished with those gifts.
• Here's the clincher. Part of why the book has so many so bent out of shape is they haven't really read and don't really know the Bible. If, as a church, we'd read the Bible, be in a relationship with Christ that included daily study and prayer, then we'd not be in a position to have our faith shaken by this little book. We'd know exactly what the Bible said about all of this and we'd have the facts to back us up. And, yes, while I do consider myself a Christian and I like to think and hope I'm devout, this one hit home becuase it made me think, question and wonder--am I doing enough in my daily journey to have the close relationship with Christ that I need and that He wants?

• Then, onto this evening in which ABC and FOX are torturing us by having the season finale of 24 run against the series finale of Alias. These two spy-related shows started the same year and it's ironic that the last hurrah of Alias would go against the conclusion this season of 24. I'm telling you--it's just torture on insane fans like me who have no life. That said, I'm watching 24 before Alias. Sorry, but I do not want one second of 24 spoiled for me and I know it would be tomorrow.